Legend of the Dream Keeper: The Sword of Dreams
by Pax the Dreamer
Summary: The second book in the Legend of the Dream Keeper series. Follow Pax through the adventures of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door as he collects the Crystal Stars and learns the secrets behind the Crystal Sword. Rated T for action. Nintendo owns Mario.
1. Chapter 1: Another Dream

**Author's Note: Book 1 is over, and now, it's time to move on to Book 2! Well, I won't keep you waiting any more. Enjoy!**

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_**The Legend of the Dream Keeper**_

_**Part 1: The Dream Keeper**_

_**Book 2: The Sword of Dreams**_

_**Chapter 1: Another Dream, Another Adventure**_

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They say a picture's worth a thousand words. Seeing as I cannot put pictures into this story (and the fact I absolutely SUCK at drawing), I'll just have to settle with the thousand words.

My name is Pax. I'm a 14 year old guy who has a knack of weird dreams. Just last week, I had one of these strange dream and managed to save the world, break my ribs (not in real life, though. Just in the dream), fall in love and have my heart shattered.

Anyway, about a week after that dream I had ANOTHER strange dream like that. Only when I closed my eyes and faded into slumber land, I felt like I was flushed down a toilet and shoved into a shell. When I opened my eyes again, I saw I was on a boat heading to a port town in the distance.

"Mario?" a voice asked. "That's Rougeport in the distance. We're almost there."

"Rougeport?" I asked, sitting up and rubbing my eyes…

…with gloved hands.

"Oh dear sweet merciful God in heaven…" I muttered, rushing to the side of the boat. I looked down in the water to see the reflection looking back at me…

…was that of Mario.

"Again!" I cried, throwing my arms into the air. "Oh come on, I thought I was already over and done with all this crap! And now I have to suffer through it AGAIN!"

"Mario, are you feeling alright?" the voice asked. I turned to see a Toad standing on deck, staring up at me.

"…yeah, I am," I sighed, leaning against the rail. "C'mon, let's take this ship to… wait a second, you're driving, right?"

"Yes," nodded the Toad.

"Then why are you standing here instead of driving?" I asked him.

"…uh," he started as the ship started to drift toward hazardous rocks. About twenty minutes later, the boat finally managed to dock at the Rougeport docks.

"So… the Princess asked you to come here?" the Toad asked as I jumped off.

"Uh, yeah I guess," I shrugged.

"And she asked you to come to find some legendary treasure?" the Toad asked.

"…sure?" I shrugged.

"Well… be careful, things are nasty there," the Toad said before boating away. I turned to look back at the grimy dock with several salty merchants walking around.

_Well…_ I thought as I walked along the dock, looking around, _I'm in Mario's body… again. And I'm in another dream/adventure… again. Perfect. Just perfect. Well, at least it can't possibly be worse than my last adventure. I mean, what could possibly happen this ti-_

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" a loud voice said from a ways away.

"Oh, of course!" I said, throwing my arms into the air in exasperation. I turned to see a large man in an X on his shirt, two smaller men looking the same behind him. They had a female Goomba cornered. She looked about my age, with hair tied into a pony-tail under a miner's hat, a red tie, and a face that looked both determined and cuuuuuuuh… *Ahem* Well, anyway…

"I know it's hard for you, but don't play dumb!" snapped the big soldier in the X suit. "We saw you asking around town about the Map! Now give, what do you know!"

"Pft, like I'd tell YOU anything I know!" spat the Goomba.

"Hm… I guess it would be… unsightly if anything happened to you," the big one with the X said. "Boys, grab her! We're taking her back to HQ!"

"Yes, sir Crump!" said the two X soldiers, saluting and marching toward her. She backed up, eyes widened.

"S-stay back!" she said. "I'll scream! Really, I'm not afraid to! I'm a very loud screamer!"

"Hey," I said, walking up to them, "what's going on here?"

The Goomba ran behind me, peeking her head out to glare at the men in X costumes.

"Ha!" she said. "Like I'd go anywhere with you weirdos!"

"Grr… you, mustache!" Crump said, pointing a finger at me. "Are you lookin' for trouble or somethin'?"

"Wha-no!" I said, shaking my head and holding out my arms. "Not at all! I don't even know what's going on here!"

"'Sides, he could take you on without even breaking a sweat!" the Goomba taunted.

"You're NOT helping!" I snapped at her.

"Hey, just trying to boost you up," the Goomba shrugged. "If you'd rather I pelt you with insults-"

"Prepare to face PAIN, plumber!" cried Crump, holding up his fists.

"Can't we just talk and settle this in a logical, non-violent manner?" I asked with a shrug. Crump, in turn, dashed at me, fists held high.

"I'll take that as a 'no'…" I muttered as I rolled out of the way, pulling out my hammer. When Crump ran at me again, I jumped over his head and slammed into him with my hammer. After landing behind him, I swept his legs out from under him, blasted him into the sky, and tossed my hammer at him, causing him to fall flat on his face a ways away.

"Piece of cake," I said, catching my hammer on the return trip. Honestly, he really was a breeze compared to Coron…

Oh, you guys don't know about Coron, do you? Well, if you read my last book, you would, but for you first-time readers, I'll explain it real quick: Coron is some kind of pitch black creature with white eyes, clawed hands and feet, and hunches whenever he's beginning to snap. For those of you with little imagination and/or Kingdom Hearts fans, he basically looked like a Neoshadow without the antennae. He was hired by someone to kill me last time I saw him, but after a long battle, I defeated him and watched as he faded into a portal of darkness. For a more detailed explination of Coron (as well as half the story from his POV), check out my first book "The Legend of the Dream Keeper: The First Dream".

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, battle with Crump.

"Don't get cocky, loser," Crump said, getting back up and rubbing his back. "Now I'll just have to show you our true power… X-NAUTS!"

Suddenly, we were surrounded by people in the X costumes.

"PUNISH THEM!" cried Crump. The X-Nauts all jumped at the spot the Goomba and I were standing.

…though fortunately for us, they were so focused on that single spot, we managed to escape quite easily without being detected. We soon walked to what looked like the center of the town. There was an Inn, a shop, and at the very center was a spot for hanging people. In short, a REAL tourist attraction.

"Geeze…" sighed the Goomba. "What was WITH those guys?"

She turned to face me.

"Thanks for saving me!" she said. "I have just GOT to give you a reward for that!"

"Oh, that's not really-" I started.

*Kiss*

I blinked hard, recovering from the shock of the Goomba jumping up and kissing me on the cheek.

"My name's Goombella," she said. "I'm a young student studying at the University of Goom. Nice to meet ya!"

"I, eh, uh…" I struggled, trying to form a coherent sentence. After a few moments, I shook my head clear.

"Pa-er, I mean, Mario," I said, remembering the charade I had to put on last time. "Pleasure to meet you, Goombella."

"Same here," Goombella said with a smile, then looked around with a look of disgust. "Can you believe this place? I haven't even been here for fifteen minutes and I was already mugged! I should have expected it what with this place being called Rougeport and all, but sheesh! If it weren't for that legendary treasure, I'd high-tail it out of here!"

"Treasure?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Yeah," Goombella said. "Legend has it there's a treasure directly under Rougeport. That's why I'm here, to study it. If I only had the map, though, finding it would be so much easier…"

"Map?" I asked, reaching into my pockets. "You mean… this thing?"

I pulled out the folded up piece of paper that I found in my pocket. Goombella snatched it out of my hand and spread it on the ground.

"OH MY GOSH!" she gasped. "THIS IS IT! THE REAL DEAL!"

She looked up at me with shock in her eyes.

"How… where did you find this?" she breathed. I opened my mouth to answer when an older voice called out: "Mario!"

I turned to see an old Toad with a grey mustache walk up to me.

"Oh thank the Stars you're here!" he breathed. "It's Princess Peach. I turned my back away from her for two seconds and she went and vanished on me again!"

"You say this as if you're surprised," I said. "She disappears or gets kidnapped EVERY time she goes on vacation."

"Well, that's not necessarily-" started the old Toad.

"There's a sign in the middle of Toad Town square that says 'Kidnapped' or 'Not kidnapped' on it, and it's switched to Kidnapped every single time Peach goes on vacation!" I said.

I'm not exaggerating here, they really do have this.

"Well… er… I can trust you'll find her, won't you?" asked the old Toad.

"What about Luigi?" I asked. "I saved Peach last time, don't you think it's only fair my little bro gets a turn in the spotlight?"

The toad, in turn, laughed.

"Luigi in the… oh, that's a good one!" he laughed as he walked to the Inn. "The day Luigi becomes famous is the day you get turned into a painting inside a haunted mansion Luigi won in a contest he never entered!"

"…yeah, too easy," I said, deciding to not make a joke or comment about that. I turned back to Goombella, who never once looked up from the map. "Er, Goombella…?"

"Hold on," Goombella said, folding up the map with her feet and handing it back to me with her mouth. "I know just the person to show this to."

"Really?" I asked. "Who?"

"My professor, Dr. Frankly," Goombella said, walking forward. "He has a house somewhere near here. If we can find him, with your map and his knowledge, we'll be able to find this treasure by the end of the day! Hey, maybe the Princess is already there, waiting for us!"

"Wait… is this Dr. Frankly an old Goomba?" I asked, fearing the answer.

"No, he's a baby Koopa fresh from the shell," Goombella said, rolling her eyes. "Yes, he's an old Goomba. So?"

"…well, if he begins to break the laws of physics, I don't care how highly you look up to him, I am leaving," I said, walking forward to find his house. Goombella was confused, but she shrugged and followed.

And that is how the two of us started off on what could only be called both an incredibly strange and an incredibly epic adventure.

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**Author's Note: MUCH better than the First Dream's first chapter, if I say so myself! Until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	2. Chapter 2: A Professor And Oh God

**Author's Note: Wa-hoo! We're already on the second chapter of the second book! Well, enough delaying, here we go!**

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_**Chapter 2: A Professor and-oh God, not him again…**_

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Goombella and I, after a bit of searching, finally found Professor Frankly's house. Upon entering, I found it was completely covered with books, maps, diagrams, and pretty much everything else in between.

"Wow, this place is a bookworm's dream come true…" I muttered to myself, moving a book off a shelf to check it out. When I turned my eyes up, I saw a pair of eyes behind glasses staring at me.

"GAH!" I shouted, jumping back, tripping on a book, and falling down on a pile of maps.

"Oh, so sorry," an old voice said, and an old Goomba-not as old as Goompa, but still pretty old-stepped forward. He was wearing glasses that had anime swirls on it, usually the sign of a mad scientist or funny smart guy or something.

…what? You don't know who Goompa is? Oh, I guess I forgot that some of you haven't read the first book yet. Well… Goompa is, without a doubt, the most insane Goomba on the face of the planet. He breaks every single law of physics there are, and he NEVER LEAVES ME ALONE. He follows me and annoys me CONSTANTLY, and he NEVER DIES! Dear GOD, why can't he just go away…

…gah, I really need to stop getting off track. ANYWAY, the Goomba jumped over the books and helped me up.

"Professor Frankly, we're here to talk to you about-" Goombella started.

"Wait a second…" the Goomba-Frankly-said, interrupting her. "You're… I know you… Not Izzagoom… Not Goombaria… Not Goombrielle… Hmmm… AHA! You're Goombella, my most promising student from UG!"

"That's right, Professor," Goombella nodded. "Go Goombas and all. But back to the matter at hand-"

"And that would make you… what, her boyfriend?" Frankly asked me.

"Wha-no!" I said, forcing myself up. "I just met her fifteen minutes ago!"

"Then give, who are you?" Frankly asked, tapping his foot.

"You know… it's-a me, Mario?" I said in a fake Italian accent.

"…who?" Frankly asked.

"Professor, that's MARIO," Goombella said. "You know, like… THE Mario. He's a superstar!"

"Oh stop, you're making me blush," I joked.

"Oh… right," Frankly said. "Sorry, I don't really know what's 'hip' nowadays. I've just been wrapped up in my books as of late. In fact, I was just in the middle of researching a classic tale. Have you heard of the legend of the Thousand Year Door?"

"Thousand Year what now?" I asked.

"Remember that treasure I was telling you about?" Goombella asked. "Legend say that it lies behind that door."

"It's deep underground, and so far, all attempts to open it have failed," Frankly said, stepping around and over books to reach his desk. "If we just had the map, everything would open up for us…"

"But Professor, that's what we're trying to tell you!" Goombella said. "We have the map! Or… Mario does, anyway."

"WAIT, WHAT!" cried Frankly, jumping and turning to me. "Can… can I see it?"

"Sure," I shrugged, pulling out the map and handing it to him. He snatched it out of my hand and spread it out on his desk, examining it all over.

"Yes… it's exactly what I thought!" he said. "With this, the next step shall open!"

He rolled the map up and tossed it to me.

"Come, to the Thousand Year Door!" he cried, running out of the house.

"He's a bit… eccentric when he's onto a new lead," Goombella explained.

"He's a thousand times better than Goompa," I shrugged, following Frankly outside side-by-side with Goombella. He was standing near a fence, and behind it was a Pipe.

"Down here is the underground of Rougeport," he said. "The Thousand Year Door is down there, as well. Come now, we must make haste!"

"Alright," I nodded, starting to hop over the fence.

"What's haste? Can I have some?" a voice asked behind me. I stiffened, every hair on my body standing on end.

_Oh dear sweet God, PLEASE tell me that's not who I think it is… _I begged mentally. I slowly turned around to see who spoke…

"Hai!" Goompa said with a grin.

I stood there in horror for a moment, staring at him.

Then, I let out a blood curdling scream that made everyone spin and turn to face us. Still screaming, I picked both Goombella and Frankly up in my arms, jumped over the fence, and dived into the pipe. As soon as we fell out the other end and wound up in an underground area below Rougeport, I beat a few wooden crates nearby to planks and used them to board up the end of the pipe so Goompa couldn't follow us.

"Need some more?" Goompa asked, offering another plank of wood to me.

"Thanks, Goo-AUGH!" I screamed, jumping and whirling to face him.

"Goo-AUGH?" asked Goompa, tilting his head in confusion. "No one's called me that before… I kinda like it!"

Picking Goombella and Frankly up again, I sprinted away from him.

"Mario, put me down!" Goombella said, struggling in my grip. "What's gotten into you!"

"THAT THING WILL CAUSE US NOTHING MORE THAN MIGRANES!" I shouted at her, passing by a small gang made up of a Goomba, a Spiky Goomba, and a Paragoomba.

"Hey baby," the Goomba said, raising an eyebrow at Goombella. "You're looking miiiiiighty fine tonight. What do you say you ditch this plumber and we can go back to my place and-hey, what are you doing?"

I had put Goombella and Frankly down, picked up the Goomba, and threw him at Goompa, who was walking toward us. I then threw the Spiky Goompa and, after stomping him down, the Paragoomba at him. This seemed to at least slow him down.

"Uh… thanks, I guess?" Goombella said, taken aback at how quickly I got rid of the perverts who were hitting on her. I said nothing as I ran forward. Goombella and Frankly followed, and soon, a pipe leading forward showed itself.

"Halt!" someone shouted, and a gate appeared, blocking us from the pipe. Goompa, in an army general's outfit, walked out and looked us up and down.

"State your business!" he said.

"Oh COME ON!" I shouted, flinging my arms in the air.

"Okay!" panted… Goompa? The Goompa in the general outfit was still standing there as a second Goompa-the one chasing us-ran up. I felt my sanity slowly slip away as I saw two Goompas in one area.

"And who is this handsome guy?" regular Goompa asked, getting in General Goompa's face.

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS, WITHOUT A PASSPORT!" General Goompa shouted, the force of his voice knocking regular Goompa back. He, however, still had the grin on his face.

"But I gots a lifeline!" regular Goompa said, throwing a rope with "LIFE" written on it at General Goompa. He, in turn, caught it and began licking it.

"THIS TASTES LIKE MY UNCLE'S PEA SOUP!" he shouted before exploding, the gate instantly rusting away and leaving the Pipe open to enter.

"Well, I think I better go!" Goompa said, skipping away into a rainbow-colored window. "I'll be back to check and see if you ate your fresh vegetables!"

With that, the rainbow window vanished, leaving behind nothing to show anything abnormal happened.

"…okay?" Goombella said. "What was THAT all about?"

"I witnessed at least 12 different laws of physics being broken in the last five minutes," Frankly said.

"…he's back," I sobbed, putting my hands on my face. "Oh dear God, he's back…"

I dropped to my knees, breaking down.

"…uh, there there?" Goombella said uncertainly, patting me on the back. Eventually, after a good cry, we moved on.

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**Author's Note: You didn't think I'd just leave Goompa out, did you? Well, something REALLY plot driven happens next chapter! And I'm not just referring to the game's plot… until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Crystal Sword

**Author's Note: Alright, here we GO!**

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_**Chapter 3: The Crystal Sword**_

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"Whoa," I said, walking into the next chamber with Goombella and Frankly. "This is... intense."

We were in a chamber with a large circular stone in the center, and a tiny platform in the center of that. The main thing that caught my attention, however, was the huge door on the wall.

"The Thousand Year Door," Goombella breathed, looking at the door in awe. "I can't believe I'm looking at something as historical as this..."

"Just makes you wonder what this door was called a few years ago," I said. "Would it be called the 995 Year Door? Because that doesn't sound as cool."

"...you're completely ruining it, you know," Goombella replied, glaring at me.

"Sorry," I replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head.

"Hm..." Frankly said, examining the pillar intently. "Mario, could you take out your map?"

"Sure," I said, pulling the old map out of my pocket. It was, strangely, glowing as it got closer to the pillar.

"Weird..." I said.

"Try standing on that pillar, Mario," Frankly said, his voice shaking a bit from excitement. "And hold out the map."

"Alright..." I said, doing so. Suddenly, everything began glowing. The map floated into the air as a strong wind began blowing around me.

"Professor, what's happening!" Goombella shouted over the wind.

"I don't-" started Frankly, though before he could finish, he and Goombella were blown back away from me. The map glowed so brightly that the light was hurting my eyes. I shielded my eyes as it flashed one last time...

When the glow faded, I dared to open my eyes again. In front of me was a sword floating in the air. It had a blue handle, and the blade seemed to be crystal clear. I stood straight up and gripped the handle. As soon as I did, bright lights flashed all around me. The imprints of seven stars surrounded me as light gathered into the tip of the blade. I held it up into the air, and a blast of light shot out of it.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

I shot my head up alongside my two sisters. I looked over to them, my eyes wide. If I had a pulse, it would have been beating a million times a minute or something like that.

"It's happened..." Beldam said. "He's finally found it."

"You don't mean…" I gasped. I knew it was true, though. I felt it in my body. The one weapon that could kill us was in the hands of the one person who knew how to use it…

I had never felt more scared of anything before in my life.

* * *

_**Enter Grodus:**_

* * *

Every single alarm in the lab went off. Images flashed on screen. Radars began picking up powerful energy spikes.

"So... it's been found," I said to myself, gripping my staff tight and staring ahead at the computer monitor ahead of me.

* * *

_**Enter Edwin:**_

* * *

"Finally!" I laughed, holding up my finished product. "They said I was crazy, they called me a dreamer, told me it could never be done! But after all these years of research and experimentation, I have finally created Cold Fusion!"

Then, for some very odd and unexplainable reason, a bright and blinding light shot up through my floor, granting me with temporary blindness. I stumbled around, tripped, and fell flat on my gut. My hand loosened around the Cold Fusion, and my heart cracked as I heard a shatter. I rubbed my eyes and saw, to my absolute horror, the remains of the Cold Fusion shattered across the floor.

"...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed into the air.

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_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

Eventually, the lights, the wind, everything faded, and I opened my eyes to see I was still holding the sword.

"W... what is that thing?" Goombella asked, walking up to me.

"I dunno," I said, examining it. I swung it around, liking the feel of it. I then did exactly what Link did when he got the Master Sword in Wind Waker: I swung the sword around, swung it to the ground, then held it up into the sky in an awesome stance.

"...but I like it!" I said with a grin.

"Of course, give a boy a sharp toy and he loves it," Goombella said, though her voice was still shaking with excitement.

"Well… come now!" Frankly said, jumping to his feet. "Let's head back to my house! Maybe there'll be a book there that'll tell us what that sword is!"

"Right," I nodded. I pocketed the map and slung the sword over my shoulder as I walked out of the chamber with Frankly and Goombella. However, outside the chamber I ran into a very familiar face. My eyes widened in horror as I stepped away from the pitch black creature.

"Miss me, Dream Keeper?" asked Coron, flexing his fingers.

If I had any idea what he had been through just before… well, I'll let you guys see.

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_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

A flash of pain caused me to scream and rip out of the dark wall I was resting in. I knew, right then and there, that damned sword was in the ownership of none other than the Dream Keeper.

_**You sensed it as well? **_Asked the Lord of Nightmares in my head.

"**I would be surprised if any self** respecting Nightmare didn't," I replied, forcing myself calm. "Lord, I beg of you, allow me to take him on. He won't be expecting me."

_**The last time you faced him, you were defeated by a mere hammer**_, the Lord of Nightmares noted.

"He was aided by Dream Guardians," I defended. "Aided by their power of Light. I also was not in my right mind at the time. Yes, he has the Sword, but I am at a better frame of mind, and he does not know how to use it yet. I can take him, I know it. Allow Rixamim to tear a portal to that Dream, give me one last chance."

…_**if you fail again,**_ the Lord of Nightmares said, _**I will show no mercy and allow Tashanax to do whatever she wishes with you.**_

I shuddered involuntarily from the thought.

"Yes, my Lord…" I said, bowing my head. I held out my hand, sparking a portal into being. I felt it connect with Rixamim's as it clicked to the Dream. With a sneer, I jumped in. After a ride through a dark tunnel, I landed on my feet in a sewer-like area. It didn't take long for the Dream Keeper to walk in, his hammer in his left hand, that horrible sword in his right. His eyes widened in horror as he saw me.

"Miss me, Dream Keeper?" I asked, flexing my fingers.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

Well, now you know. Anyway, I glared as I got into battle position, throwing my hammer at him. With a yawn, he caught the hammer in his clawed hand.

"Aren't you a little old to be playing with toys?" he asked before crushing my hammer to pieces. I swear, it felt almost as if a bit of my soul was crushed as I saw my favorite weapon get destroyed as well.

"What IS that thing!" cried out Goombella.

"Get back, both of you!" I said, holding out my arm, holding up my sword with my right hand. "This guy's wicked dangerous!"

"You don't know the half of it," Coron said, then before I had the chance to blink, he snapped up to me, knocked the sword out of my hand, and punched me in the gut, causing me to launch back into the wall. He pinned me down, glaring at me.

"Oh, I am SO going to enjoy this," he sneered, holding up his clawed hand.

"HEY!" shouted Goombella, running up to him. "LEAVE HIM-"

With a kick, Goombella was launched back across the room.

"You want some too?" Coron asked Frankly.

"Uh… uh…" Frankly seemed paralyzed with fear.

"I thought not," he said, turning back to me. "Well Dream Keeper, perhaps you shall make a good Nightmare."

With that, he dug a claw into the palm of my left hand. I screamed in agony. It felt like he didn't just pierce my hand, but my very essence itself. I watched in horror as the darkness spread through my hand, making the fingers clawed, trekking down to my wrist…

Then, something very strange happened.

A golden light appeared in my palm, opening up into a hole of pure light. Coron roared at the light and tried to pull away, but it seemed like he was being sucked in. First was his arm, then his torso, soon followed by his legs. He tried to claw at me with his other arm, but it was as if my body was surrounded by an invisible shield of light that kept him from hurting me. With a glare, his head and arm were sucked into my hand as well.

Then, as quick as the light appeared, it was gone. All that was left was a pitch black and clawed left hand.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

I tried to claw my way out of the path, but to no avail. I found myself floating in a room full of light. Everything was light. Walls of light, floors of light, everything just pure light. I tried to run, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't escape. The worst part was, as I looked at the light, I felt something inside… oh…

Lord…

No…

A dark creature slaughtering a town of innocent people…

A dark creature laughing as he infects without mercy…

No… that dark creature… is it me?

Stop!

STOP!

PLEASE!

MAKE IT STOP!

IT HURTS! SO MUCH…

Pain…

So much… so many people hurt…

I caused so much pain…

Please… I'll be good, I promise…

Just… make it all stop…

Please…

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

I forced myself up and looked at my clawed left hand. I tried flexing my left finger. The left claw flexed. I tried to form my left hand into a fist. The claw obeyed.

"Wow… that's freaky," I said, continuing to move my claw. It was then I remembered Goombella. I turned my head up and ran to her. She was sprawled up against a wall.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"The pumpkins are swimming in my elephant farm…" she said dizzily before passing out.

"Yeesh, Coron kicked you hard…" I muttered, picking her up. I took a quick look around for the sword, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I decided it could wait: Goombella needed to get out of these moldy sewers. After shaking Frankly out of the trance of fear Coron induced on him, we left, via pipe, back to the surface.

* * *

**Author's Note: And with that, the REAL story begins! What happened to Coron? What will happen to Pax? Anything else goin' on? Tune in next time to find out!**


	4. Chapter 4: Nightmares

**Author's Note: Well then… uh… *Flips through book* Aw crap, I'm out of witty Author Notes… Man… Aw well. Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 4: Nightmares**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Oh, she's coming too," I noted, watching Goombella wake up. "You alright?"

"Uh… yeah…" Goombella said, sitting up and shaking her head. "Ow… man, that thing really did a number on-WHOA!"

She jumped up and backed away from me.

"What?" I asked.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND!" she shouted, freaking out.

"Huh?" I asked. I looked down at my left hand to see it was still pitch black and clawed.

"Oh yeah, this," I said, holding up the hand. "Don't worry, it's harmless… I think."

"YOU THINK!" shouted Goombella. "MARIO, LOOK AT IT! IT'S… IT'S…"

"Goombella, calm down," Frankly said, looking up from his book. "Now, I found the answers to what you're looking for, so come here."

Both Goombella and I stepped forward, Goombella making sure to stand on my right side.

"Now… first is the map," Frankly said. "Amazingly, it has radar-like functions. It seems to be able to locate the Crystal Stars when it's exposed to the Thousand Year Door. The first one shown is… in Petalburg. Aha, I KNEW that place was suspicious!"

"Alright," I nodded. "What about the sword?"

"Well…" Frankly said. "I did some reading, and I came across an old legend. Most of it is lost, but I pieced together enough to figure out that sword is connected to the Crystal Stars. Supposedly, it acts as a key when exposed to the seven stars, sealing the Thousand Year Door."

"Does it have a name?" I asked.

"Well… yes, let me check," Frankly said, looking over a very old poem. "Hm… well, when translated loosely, it's called… The Crystal Sword."

"Crystal Sword… I like that," I smiled. "Couldn't have come up with a better name myself. Well, I should probably go and get it in a minute-"

"Oh, no need," smiled Frankly. "Go on, hold out your right hand and focus on the image of the sword."

"Uh… alright?" I said, doing as told. After a moment, in a flash of light, the Crystal Sword appeared in my hand, in a similar fashion to how the Keyblade always appears in Sora's hand.

"WHOA!" I said, jumping back and almost dropping the sword.

"Once it claims you as its master," Frankly said, "all you have to do is focus on its power and it will come to you."

"…sweet!" I said. "So… do I need a sheath or anything?"

"Once again, no need," Frankly said. "Just make the motion of shutting your hand closed as you toss it into the air."

"Alright…" I did as told, and in another flash of light, it vanished.

"Okay," I said, grinning wildly, "that is SO cool!"

"Yeah yeah, we get it, boys and toys," rushed Goombella. "But what about that hand?"

"What is it with you and my hand?" I asked.

"It's REALLY freaky!" Goombella replied. "It looks like your left hand just died and was possessed by an evil spirit or something!"

"Okay, note to self: Buy new gloves before I go out in public," I said to myself, but loud enough for her to hear. She, in turn, rolled her eyes at me.

"Seriously, what's up with it, Professor?" Goombella asked Frankly.

"Well… I've done research on it as well," Frankly said. He then picked up a book and flipped to a picture of a hunched over, pitch black humanoid creature with white eyes, clawed hands and clawed feet.

"Wow, that looks like Coron," I said.

"It's because of his species," nodded Frankly. "This thing is called a Nightmare."

"Nightmare?" I asked. "You mean like a bad dream?"

"Sort of," Frankly said. "According to legends, bad dreams are caused by Nightmares coming into your dream and transforming it into a dark land for breeding. They're supposed to only stay in the Dream World, so it's a bit odd for one to come into our world…"

"Uh… yeah, odd…" I said, avoiding eye contact. Even if I told him this world was just a dream, he probably wouldn't believe me anyway.

"So, what about my hand?" I asked, twirling my fingers around.

"Nightmares have this ability to infect others and turn them into Nightmares," Frankly said.

"Like a vampire?" I asked.

"Kind of, only instead of just biting them, they can scratch or… do pretty much anything," Frankly said. "So more like a Zombie. A very fast, very smart Zombie."

"So, they can infect someone and completely turn them into a Nightmare…" I said. "So why did it stop at my hand?"

"That… I don't know," Frankly said. "There are no records of anything like that happening. From what I gathered… it's like you've become a Human/Nightmare hybrid."

"…that's either really bad, or REALLY cool," I said. "So what's this mean? I can use Coron's powers?"

"I would think so," Frankly said.

"Hm…" I walked outside, Goombella and Frankly following. I walked over to a streetlamp standing in the side of the street. I scratched at it with my Nightmare hand. With a *SHING!*, the pole was sliced into pieces, falling to the ground.

"…COOL!" I said, picking up a piece in my Nightmare hand. I squeezed it, and in a moment, it was crushed into dust.

"This is getting more epic by the minute!" I laughed, but stopped short when my fist refused to open.

"…are you alright?" Goombella asked.

"Yeah, just… gotta… there!" I panted, forcing the hand open. "Phew… well, it's alright now."

"Mario, this is serious!" Goombella said.

"Oh come on, you can't possibly say this isn't cool," I said.

"…okay, I admit, it is really cool," Goombella said. "But still, that thing's dangerous! It's part of some sort of infecting monster!"

"Correction: It USED to belong to an infecting monster," I said, picking up another piece of the streetlamp. "Now it belongs to me."

I swung my arm, tossing the piece of metal. It flew through the air and impaled itself into the wall of Frankly's house.

"…oops," I said.

We ran inside to see that it completely shot through the wall and was sticking out on the other side.

"…okay, so…" I said. "Super sharp claws, super strength… what CAN'T this thing do?"

"Mario, I know this must be really fun for you, but you must be careful," Frankly said. "If you use your hand too often, it's quite possible you'll enter a state of Nightmare Rage."

"…Nightmare Rage?" I asked.

"It's a state where Nightmares act only on instinct and emotion and attack everything and everyone in sight," Frankly said.

"Yeesh," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "Not fun. Okay, I won't use my hand so often."

"And don't forget," Frankly said, "the Crystal Sword is not only the only weapon that can exterminate Nightmares, but it also acts as a beacon to them. So long as you wield that sword, they'll be able to find you. And if whoever leads them already sent one after you, they'll keep sending more after you. Keep on your toes, Mario."

"…how do you know all this?" I asked.

"Books," Frankly said, nodding to a huge stack of books near him, each one with an image of a Nightmare in a different position.

"So you know who leads them?" I asked, flipping through a book with a few pretty graphic images of a Nightmare infecting a human.

"No," Frankly said, "but I DO know that they choose to follow the one chosen from a lack of heart."

"Lack of what now?" I asked.

"Wait… don't you need your heart to live?" Goombella asked.

"Not your organ heart, your SPIRITUAL heart," Frankly said. "Your soul."

"Deep, man," I said.

"Thanks," Frankly said. "Anyway, that's usually what makes Nightmares so ruthless. They have no souls, so they have no remorse. Some of them, when their minds evolve past the animal stage, will slaughter entire towns without a hint of remorse."

At this, my left hand twitched involuntarily and I felt a small pang of sorrow, but I figured that was just because I didn't like the image of innocent people killed off like that, so I shook the feeling off.

"But there's this one legend about them that draws my curiosity…" Frankly said, then read off an old book:

"_Nightmares._

_Treacherous,_

_Greedy,_

_Power-Seeking._

_Dreamers._

_Blind-Loyalty,_

_Give to the point of self-deprivation,_

_Allow any to vote._

_What happens when the two are one?_

_Fair-Minded,_

_Sparing,_

_Leaders._

_The ant may leave it's hill,_

_Join another,_

_But it always returns,_

_With wisdom of the other colony._

_The body of the Raven_

_Is only so because_

_The heart of the Dove_

_Has left it._

_That Eclipse left the light at its first chance,_

_The Stars chased it away,_

_Shall come back ten-fold,_

_With no intentions of leaving again._"

"…wow, that's deep for a mindless beast," I noted.

"Not all of them are mindless," Frankly said. "Some can develop minds of their own after awhile. They can think and plan, like that Coron fellow."

"That's… a creepy thought," I said, shaking my head a bit. "But what does it mean?"

"I'm not totally sure…" Frankly said. "But from what I gathered… it has something to do with light leaving darkness and creating their leader, whom they view as more powerful than anything else."

"Right," I nodded. "So… I get it, keep on my toes, go after the Crystal Star. Is there, like, a pipe to Petal Meadows or something?"

"Yes, it's directly to the east of where we entered," Frankly nodded.

"Thanks!" I said, moving to the door.

"Wait, one last thing!" Frankly said. "You know a princess in a pink dress, correct? I think you spoke of her earlier?"

"Princess Peach, yeah," I nodded. "Why, do you know about her?"

"Well… I told her of my suspicions of Petal Meadows, and she seemed to have a glint in her eyes as she left…" Frankly said.

"She must have gotten ambitious and left before you came," Goombella reasoned.

"Joy," I sighed. "Ten coins says she gets kidnapped by something or someone along the way. C'mon, we better get going."

After getting some gloves at the nearby store and covering my Nightmare hand, we jumped into the pipe and headed toward Petal Meadows.

* * *

**Author's Note: Can you say foreshadowing? This chapter's so full of it, it's practically DRIPPING with it! Plus, a HUGE thanks to Sir Starlll for helping me write the poem (I'm not good with poems… heh…), so go out and give him a big thanks by reading his stories! Well, Petal Meadows is next chapter, so until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	5. Chapter 5: Drawbacks

**Author's Note: In this chapter, Pax discovers his new powers may not be as cool as he originally thought…**

* * *

_**Chapter 5: Drawbacks**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…what the heck is that?" Goombella asked. I shrugged, staring at the strange white tentacle thingy in front of us. We were in the Rougeport Sewers now, near some disgusting sewer water, and a white tentacle was sticking out of the water.

"…should we hit it?" she asked.

"With what?" I asked her.

"…you're kidding, right?" Goombella asked, staring at me. "You have a freakin' magical sword and a Nightmare hand! Take your pick!"

"Oh… right," I said, face-palming. I held out my right hand, and in a flash of light, the sword appeared. I stepped forward and slammed the flat of the blade against the tentacle as hard as I could.

"BLOOOOP!" a voice came from nowhere as the tentacle shook in pain. It retreated back into the water, and in a moment, a giant Squid-like creature came out of the water.

"WHOA!" both Goombella and I shouted simultaneously, jumping back.

"Bloop?" the creature asked. "Bloop bloop! Blooooop bloop bloo-oop!"

"…what?" I asked.

"Oh, that's a Blooper," explained Goombella. "They usually live underwater, though I doubt it's very healthy for one to be living in the water sewers…"

"And what's with all the Bloops?" I asked.

"They have their own speech pattern, I'm guessing," shrugged Goombella.

"So what's he saying?" I asked her.

"What do I look like, the Blooper Whisperer?" Goombella retorted.

"No need for sarcasm..." I muttered, turning back to the Blooper in time to see a tentacle slam me in the front and cause me to slam into the far wall.

"Okay..." I muttered, peeling myself off the wall and shaking my head clear. "Looks like I'm not gonna solve this with talking..."

I ran forward, my sword held above my head, then jumped into the air and slammed my sword down...

...unfortunately, the sword moved so fast I tripped and fell on my face. It was then I realized for the first time (my, aren't I fast?) that I was already so used to using a hammer-which had extra weight in the tip-that I was awkward with using a sword.

And now, with no way to practice, I was already facing off against a big squid who wanted to kill me.

As I'm sure many people have said before me: Aw crap.

"Alright, so I'm not using the sword..." I muttered, standing up. "No prob, I can just-"

WHAM!

I was slammed back into the wall with another hit by a tentacle, dropping the sword. After the second slam, my Nightmare hand twitched involuntarily and I felt an uncharacteristic surge of anger shoot through me, focused at the Blooper. I growled-yes, actually GROWLED-and ran forward, my hand clenched into a fist. I jumped up and slammed my Nightmare fist down on the Blooper's head. He blooped in pain and recoiled as I landed on the ground. I got back up, ready to attack again.

"Mario!" Goombella shouted. I blinked, and the rage faded from me.

"What the heck got into you!" she asked me. "You just went all beast there for a second!"

"Right... sorry..." I said, shaking my head clear. I had no idea what the heck made me act out that way (except teenage hormones, but that's a WHOLE different story).

"BLOOOOOOP!" cried the Blooper, it's face turning red with fury. It actually jumped out of the water and began flailing at us.

"I think it would be better if I took care of it," Goombella said, pushing me back and dashing forward.

The Blooper "Bloop!"ed and swung it's tentacle down. Goombella rolled out of the way, flipped into the air, then slammed into the Blooper, headfirst. The Blooper roared and stupidly tried to hit Goombella, who was on him. So, you can kind of see where this is going when Goombella jumped off the Blooper. With a final WHAM suffered from himself, the Blooper screeched and fell back into the water, unconscious.

"…wow!" I said, walking up to Goombella, who was fixing her hair. "Goombella, that was… amazing!"

"Wow," she said, rolling her eyes. "The way you said it as if it were a surprise I could ever actually beat it is REAL encouraging."

"Oh come on, that's not what I meant!" I said, rubbing the back of my head. My apologetic look soon turned into a glare as she began laughing.

"Mario, you are SO easy to mess with!" Goombella laughed.

"Oh gee, thanks," I said, rolling my eyes.

"C'mon Mario, there's no need to be that-"

SPLASH!

A new Blooper, at least four times as big as the last one, jumped out, holding the smaller Blooper in its arms, red with rage.

"WHOA!" I shouted, jumping back. "What is that thing!"

"The mother!" gasped Goombella.

"Wait, how do you know?" I asked, turning to her.

"The correct answer is that through observation and reasoning, I found that she's about the size of an average adult female compared to a child, she's incredibly protective over the other one, and she's obviously entered a state of rage upon the sight of him beaten down and unconscious," Goombella explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "The answer I'm gonna give you, however, is that I'm a girl, and us girls know these kinds of thing."

"Right…" I said, looking up at the mother. "Look… this is all just one big misunderstanding, so why don't we just sit down and have a chat?"

She, in turn, slammed a HUGE tentacle at us, which we rolled out of the way from.

"Yeesh, these people really need to learn how to talk to solve their problems…" I muttered, summoning the Crystal Sword again.

"Mario, why are you-" started Goombella.

"Don't worry, I think I might be able to get the hang of it!" I said. "…I think."

I tried to do what I used to always do with the hammer: I jumped back and tossed my sword at her, and it flew much faster and farther than my hammer ever did. There was an odd sounding CRACK as it slammed against the Blooper and knocked her back. The sword flew back as fast and as accurately as a Boomerang.

"Ha!" I said, holding out my left hand without thinking. "How's that, mama-AUGH!"

I screamed in pain as the sword made contact with my Nightmare hand. I dropped the sword and gripped it in pain, looking at the palm. I saw the spot the sword hit was a shade of grey and sizzling like a burn mark.

"Oh dear GOD, that smarts!" I said through my teeth, clenching my wrist in pain. I didn't even notice as the Blooper went for me until I saw Goombella run in front of me and slam it aside.

"You okay?" Goombella asked as the Blooper recoiled in pain, getting angrier by the minute.

"Don't worry, it'll heal," I said, shaking my Nightmare hand off. The Blooper came running back at full force.

"Alright, time to show her some Mario action…" I muttered.

Time seemed to slow down as I ran forward, meeting the Blooper half-way. I jumped up, bouncing off her tentacles, and jumped on her head hard with one of the Super Mario Super Jumps*. She Blooped in horrible pain before falling back under the dirty water with her child. As soon as he was down, a bridge rose out of the water, leading to a pipe up ahead.

"…why in the world would defeating a Blooper cause a bridge to come out of nowhere?" I asked.

"I say take your gifts first, ask questions later," Goombella said, standing next to me. "How's your hand?"

I looked at my Nightmare hand and gasped to see tiny spaghetti-like strands of black covering the grey part until nothing was left but normal inky darkness. As soon as the grey spot was gone, my hand felt better, too.

"…sweet!" I said, flexing my fingers.

"If that hand doesn't make you a Gary Stu, I don't know what will," Goombella said, rolling her eyes as she walked across the bridge to the pipe.

"Heeeeey…" I said, following. Together, the two of us jumped into the pipe and shot toward Petal Meadows.

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, there ya go, folks! I can't believe I completely forgot about Mario's jumping before now… hm. Well, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	6. Chapter 6: Petalburg

**Author's Note: GRAH, THERE'S NOT ENOUGH GOOMPA! Wait… why am I complaining? I WRITE the thing! I can put him in anytime I want! I'm the GOD of my own world! I can do ANYTHING!**

**Coron: Oh Lord, not the God complex…**

**Pax: Hey! You're not supposed to be in the Author's Notes!**

**Coron: I wouldn't have to be here in the first place if you got on with the story.**

**Pax: Fine, fine! Geeze…**

* * *

_**Chapter 6: Petalburg**_

* * *

After an Aerosmith-like ride through the Pipes, Goombella and I were thrown out of the pipe and landed face-first on the grassy area near the Pipe.

"Ow…" I moaned, lifting my head up slowly. I saw a large, green, peaceful field spread out ahead of us. The only odd thing that stuck out from the peacefulness caused by the green was a large castle on hills a bit of a ways away.

"Wow," Goombella said, standing up.

"Yeah," I replied, standing up myself.

"I say it needs more red!" Goompa said, he suddenly next to me. "Red and Green make the eyes feel funny, ya know!"

"AUGH!" both Goombella and I shouted, jumping in surprise at the fact Goompa suddenly appeared there.

"Aw, why does everyone do that when I show up?" pouted Goompa. "I'm starting to think people don't want me around!"

"Yeah, it's called TAKING A HINT," I said, glaring down at Goompa. "Why don't you GET OUT!"

While some of you think that might be harsh, I want to think about all the experiences I went through with Goompa and put yourself in my shoes. Would you have done any different? Honestly?

…that's what I thought.

Anyway, as I was glaring at him, Goompa looked up above my head and grinned.

"Hi, Miss Dragon!" he called up. Goombella followed his gaze and her eyes widened.

"Mario, get down!" she said, shoving me down and behind a tree, leaving Goompa behind.

"What are-" I started, under her. She put her foot over my mouth to shut me up, as she had no hands to do it with.

"Shh!" she said, then nodded up to the sky. I followed her gaze, and my eyes widened at the sight of a giant, red dragon flying through the sky toward the castle.

"HI THERE!" Goompa called up to the Dragon, jumping around and trying to get its attention. To my absolute horror, the dragon actually turned around and flew down, landing in front of Goompa. Goombella stood frozen over me, keeping the both of us out of sight.

"Mmm… you look tasty, creature…" the Dragon said, licking its lips and leaning its head down to see him.

"Awww, you're just saying that!" Goompa giggled. "But you don't want to eat me!"

"And why not, pray tell?" the Dragon asked, ready to gulp Goompa up in one bite.

"Because I just swallowed a bomb!" Goompa said, opening his mouth wide to show a ticking time bomb. Everyone's eyes widened as the Dragon flew off toward the castle and Goombella and I just ran away, screaming.

* * *

"Ah… such a peaceful, relaxing day…" a Koopa near the entrence of Town sighed, leaning back and relaxing. Suddenly, he jumped when he heard a loud BOOM!

"What the-" he started, then looked up and screamed at the sight of Goombella and I flying through the air because of the explosion. He ran away and barely missed having us hit him as we landed on the ground hard.

"Ow…" I moaned, picking myself up.

"I'm beginning to see why you don't like that Goomba," Goombella said as I helped her up. "But should we feel so good now that he's dead?"

"He's not dead," I said.

"…he was standing right next to a HUGE bomb as it-" Goombella started.

"He cannot die," I sighed, interrupting. "Believe me, I've tried… and tried… and tried…"

I shuddered a bit involuntarily from the many thoughts of Goompa.

"Uh…" a voice behind us said. We turned to see the Koopa, staring at us with wide eyes.

"…hi?" he said with a wave.

"…hello," I replied, also with a wave.

"Uh… why-" started the Koopa.

"Don't ask," Goombella said. "Please."

"Uh… alright?" the Koopa said, shaking his head. "Anyway, welcome to Petalburg! Not very many visitors come around nowadays, what with Hooktail eating every single person that walks through."

"Hooktail?" Goombella asked.

"Yeah," the Koopa nodded. "It's a giant, red dragon with a hook for a tail and a foot fetish."

"…wait, how do you know-" I started.

"It's really big and really ferocious," the Koopa continued. "Better be glad you didn't run into it on your way here."

"Wait… that sounds a bit like that dragon we saw while coming here, didn't it?" Goombella asked me.

"Yeah, I guess," I nodded.

"Wh-what!" the Koopa shouted, eyes widened again. "You mean, you actually saw Hooktail? And LIVED!"

"Well-" I started.

"Man!" the Koopa said, putting a hand over his head. "You guys are either really lucky, or just look REALLY ugly for Hooktail not to have gobbled you whole!"

In response to this, we both glared daggers at him.

"I think you might wanna rephrase that last sentence," Goombella said.

"Uhhhh… o-okay then, you guys here for anything?" the Koopa asked, taking a careful step back.

"Yeah," I nodded. "We're here for something called a Crystal Star. Ever heard of it?"

"Crystal… no, I don't think so," the Koopa shook his head. "You might want to ask the mayor, though. He's… old. And knows a bit. At least… what he hasn't forgotten. He lives in a pink house down the road."

"Right… thanks," I saluted, walking past him.

"PINK house?" Goombella asked as we walked on. "Sounds absolutely hideous…"

"But it'll stick out, at least," I shrugged.

At least, that's what I thought before I moved onto the next area and saw every single house was pink.

"Oh of COURSE!" I shouted in exasperation, throwing my arms into the air.

"No offence, but you have the WORST luck of anyone I've ever met before," Goombella said.

"Oh, like you have any better luck?" I retorted, beginning to go from house to house. The very first house I knocked on, however, had an elderly Koopa on the other side of the door.

"Hello, young whippersnappers!" he said with a wave. Goombella was grinning smugly at me.

"Oh shut up," I replied to her before turning to the Koopa.

"Yeah, uh… hi," I said with a wave. "We're here to-"

"DON'T YOU DARE ROB ME, TRUCKERS!" the Koopa said, holding his cane like a gun. "I KNOW KUNG-FU!"

"…and here I thought Goompa was the only crazy old fart we had to deal with," I sighed, gently pushing the old Koopa's cane down. "Listen, we just want to talk about the Crystal Stars."

"And how do I know you're telling me the truth?" asked the Koopa. I, in turn, held out my hand and allowed the Crystal Sword to appear in a flash of light.

"…oh, that explains it," the Koopa said.

"Wow, and here I was thinking you'd have a heart attack or something," I said, making the sword vanish again.

"Mario!" shouted Goombella.

"What?" I asked. "I'm just telling the truth! He's old, something surprising like that should surprise him greatly!"

"Then why even do it in the first place?" Goombella asked.

"Well-"

"Hello, I'm right here!" the Koopa said. "And I'll just have you know that I will have a heart attack, it's just my heart works so slow anyway, it will probably take awhile for it to finally kick in."

"…right," I said. "So anyway, the Crystal Star?"

"It's in the castle of Hooktail," the Koopa said. "In order to get there, you must head to the sewers to the east and collect two stones to open the path with. You'll know them when you see them."

"Alright," I nodded. "So, when can we go to the sewers?"

"Right now," the Koopa said, pushing a button nearby. The floor opened underneath Goombella and me, and we both fell down screaming.

"Heh heh… I love my job…" the Koopa said, closing the door and going back to tea.

* * *

**Author's Note: Next chapter includes Fuzzies and Koops! So, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	7. Chapter 7: Sewers, Fuzzies and Koops

**Author's Note: I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE! The website refused to let me post for a week! But... now everything's back on schedual, so yay!**

* * *

_**Chapter 7: Sewers, Fuzzies and Koops**_

* * *

"Aaaaaaaaah-"

SPLASH!

"Oh, gross!" spat Goombella, sitting up. I had to agree with her, the horrid taste of the sewer water in my mouth.

"Why does every old person I meet screw with me in some way…" I muttered to myself, standing up. I looked around at the sewer, which, even though it was completely underground and had nothing to keep it lit, was actually quite well lit.

"Right, so… we're supposed to be looking for some stones?" I asked.

"Two, I think he said…" Goombella said. "He also said we'd know them when we saw them."

"Translation: Nice knowin' ya, what do you want written on your grave stone?" I sighed.

"I thought you were an optimist," Goombella said, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not… I just… look, let's just start searching, okay?" I asked.

"Lead the way, Mr. Mario," Goombella said with a mock bow. Rolling my eyes, I moved on through the sewers, Goombella following.

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

I was looking out my window, staring blankly at the town when I saw them walk through. One was an attractive Goomba (don't tell Koopie Koo I said that!) and the other was a… err… "round" plumber with blue overalls, a red shirt, red cap with an M on it, and a sweet mustache. The main thing I noticed was his left gloved hand, which was… well, it was just odd. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he was hiding a claw under that instead of a hand. They knocked on the Mayor's house, and he answered. I saw them talking for a bit, then the man in red held out his right hand, and in a flash of light, a sword appeared. My eyes widened as I jumped away from the window in shock…

…it was about then I noticed the lamp behind me, which crashed under my shell along with the desk it was on.

"Ow…" I moaned, rolling myself back to my feet. I made a dash to the door, wondering what just happened there. That sword… it reminded me of something I saw in a dream the other-

"Koops!"

Koopie Koo was at my door when I reached outside.

"Oh, hey Koopie," I said, rubbing the back of my head and blushing. She was always so pretty… so caring… but sometimes, I felt like she cared just a little bit too much.

This was one of those times.

"I heard a crash, are you okay?" she asked, examining me. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"Koopie, I'm-I'm fine," I said, stepping away. "I just saw something surprising outside and jumped back is all."

"Saw what?" Koopie Koo asked.

"Something over at-" I started, looking over at the Mayor's house in time to see him push a button and drop the two into the sewers.

"…uh-oh," I said.

"What uh-oh?" Koopie Koo asked as the door closed and the mayor went back inside.

"Look, I just… I'll be back, okay?" I said, running to the exit of the town, my heart racing. If they were going into the sewers, they must have been after the stones. And if they were after the stones, they must be going after Hooktail. And if they were going after Hooktail… maybe I could ask them to take me with them.

They seemed strong… maybe, with their help… maybe I had a chance…

…Koopie was right. I really do angst a lot. Man, why did I agree to write this? This is going to be so embarrassing…

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Well," I said, holding both the sun shaped and the moon shaped stones in my arms, "we got the stones."

"Hm…" Goombella was looking around the sewers.

"Something the matter?" I asked her.

"This just… it seems too easy," she said.

"I appreciate the easy," I shrugged. "Sure beats having to fight hordes of monsters."

"But that's just the thing," Goombella said. "Don't you think, what with these two stones here, which I might add are the only keys to enter a castle with a nasty dragon, SOMETHING would be guarding them?"

"Please," I begged, my eyes closed, "stop making sense. Next thing you know, something's gonna come up and attack us because you just pointed it out-"

"MEEEEYORK!"

A golden Fuzzy-a little fuzzy creature I encountered on my last adventure-dropped down in front of us in battle position. The three of us stood there for a few moments, simply staring each other down.

"For the record," I finally said, turning my head to Goombella, "I blame you."

"What did I do?" asked Goombella indignantly.

"You tempted fate!" I said. "And now, she has sent after us some incredibly powerful Fuzzy or something!"

"…actually, it's not all that powerful," Goombella said, giving the Fuzzy a quick look-over. "Rare, yes. Powerful, no."

"Hey, I'm right here you know!" the Gold Fuzzy shouted, glaring at us. "And I'll have you know that I AM powerful! Watch!"

The Fuzzy gave a "MEEYORK!" as it dashed at us.

"Hold these, please," I said, tossing the stones to Goombella. I then turned to the Fuzzy and punched it with my Nightmare hand as soon as it was close enough. It was launched into the far wall and hit it with a loud CRACK!, cracks appearing in the wall at the point where the Fuzzy hit it.

"Yeesh Mario, you might wanna go easy on the thing," Goombella said. "We're trying to beat it, not kill it."

"Right, sorry," I said, shaking my hand and, at the same time, the unusual mood I was in.

"Alright, that's IT!" the Fuzzy shouted. "COME, EVERYONE! ATTACK!"

Suddenly, the whole sewer was full to the brim of black Fuzzies, ready to attack at any given moment.

"Oh…" I started, summoning the Sword.

"…crap," Goombella finished, getting into battle position herself.

"Now, slaughter them!" the Gold Fuzzy shouted.

However, the other Fuzzies did nothing more than stare up at my sword in wonder. I looked at it and noticed for the first time that it glowed in the dark.

"This thing just keeps getting cooler and cooler…" I muttered to myself.

"Pretty light…" the Fuzzies said simultaneously.

"SNAP OUT OF IT AND ATTACK, FOR STAR'S SAKES!" the Gold Fuzzy shrieked. I looked up at him and grinned.

"Hey Fuzzies," I said, holding my sword up, "catch!"

I tossed it and it landed right behind the Gold Fuzzy. He screeched as the Fuzzies trampled him to get to the sword. With the twitch of my hand, the sword vanished in a flash of light. With their leader squished under them and the sword gone, the Fuzzies had nothing to do in that area, so they went their separate ways, leaving Goombella and me alone with the flat-as-a-pancake Gold Fuzzy.

"Nice one," nodded Goombella, tossing the stones back at me. I caught them as they came to me.

"Thanks," I nodded to her, then left through a stairwell nearby, the exit being in an old building in a dense, dark forest. Looking around, I saw Petalburg a bit of a ways away to the West.

"This couldn't have been easy, could it?" I sighed.

"Quit your whining and just go already," Goombella said, pushing against the back of my legs. Nodding, I left toward the town, Goombella following.

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

Uh… is it my turn to write again?

…okay, just checking.

Anyway, after about fifteen minutes, I saw the man and Goomba walking through the town, grumbling something having to do with forests and spiky creatures.

"Uh…" I said. They stopped and looked up at me.

"Oh, hey," the man said with a smile and wave. The first thing I noticed up close were his eyes… they didn't exactly look like the eyes of a man, more like… like the eyes of a kid. As if… someone else was inside that body.

"Not to sound rude, but who are you?" the Goomba asked.

"Oh, um… Hi, I'm… I'm Koops," I said, holding out a hand to shake. The man took it and gave it a firm shake.

"I'm Mario," he said.

"Goombella," the Goomba introduced herself.

"Yeah, hi Mario… Goombella…" I said, rubbing the back of my head when Mario let go of my hand. "Uh… listen, I saw the mayor dropping you two into the sewers and all…"

"Don't remind us…" grumbled Mario, glaring back at the town.

"Okay…" I said. "Well, it's just that… you went there for the stones that are the key to Hooktail's castle, right?" I asked.

"That's right," Mario nodded, turning back to me.

"How do you know about the stones?" Goombella asked.

"Oh, EVERYONE knows about those stones," I said.

"Then why hasn't anyone tried using them in who knows how long?" Goombella asked.

"Because no one's been suicidal," I replied. "At least, not since…"

"Since…?" asked Mario.

"It-it doesn't matter," I said, shaking my head. "My question is… can you… would you… OH PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!"

Letting go of the little dignity I had left, I dropped to my knees and begged, my fingers crossed in a prayer pose. Both Mario and Goombella seemed completely taken aback by it.

"…sorry," I said, getting up. "I kind of… just…"

I cleared my throat.

"It's… fine?" Mario said.

"No it's not… but thanks anyway…" I said. "Anyway… a few years ago, my… my dad left to fight Hooktail. He never came back. So I… wanna go finish what he started. Beat Hooktail. Stop him from hurting anyone else…"

"A tragic, misunderstood hero from a small town, bent on revenge for the death of his father?" Goombella asked. "…sounds horribly cliché, but you seem like a nice enough guy. Mario, what do you say?"

"Sure," Mario shrugged. "If he really wants to come, he can come."

He smiled and held out his hand.

"Welcome to the team, Koops," he smiled. Grinning wildly, I grabbed his one hand with both of mine and shook it vigorously.

"Thank you, Mario!" I told him, practically laughing from giddiness. "You won't regret this, I swear! If there's anything I can do for you, just say it!"

"Don't shake my brains into slushy…" Mario managed.

"Oh, sorry!" I said, letting go immediately. "Right!"

"'S fine…" muttered Mario. He shook his head, then returned to normal.

"Right, so… onwards to the castle?" Goombella asked. "I feel like kicking some Dragon tail!"

Nodding, Mario made his way to the castle. I began to follow with Goombella when Koopie's voice stopped me:

"Koops?"

I stopped and turned to face her, as did Mario and Goombella.

"Oh… Koopie Koo…" I said. "How… how long have you been listening?"

"Long enough…" Koopie said. "I THOUGHT you said something about going to fight Hooktail… but you aren't stupid enough to do that, are you?"

"…" I said nothing, keeping my head low.

"Koops?" Koopie Koo asked.

"I'm sorry Koopie… but I have to," I said.

"No," Koopie shook her head. "No you don't. Koops… this is stupid. Suicide. So what if you're kinda weak? And a crybaby at times? I don't care about any of that, I still love you."

"Sorry Koopie… but I've made up my mind," I inhaled. "Don't worry, I have Mario backing me up here, and-"

"WELL FINE!" Koopie snapped, shelling me to the ground (and, in the process, knocking Mario down too). "SEE IF I CARE! GO GET YOURSELF KILLED!"

With that, she ran back to town. She tried to hide it, but I heard a sob as she left.

"Koopie…" I said. "I'm… sorry…"

"…wow," Goombella said. "Just… wow."

"You said it…" Mario moaned, standing up and dusting himself off. "Right then… back to the adventure? Or, Koops… do you need-"

"No," I said, turning to him. "No, I'll be fine. Let's just go, okay?"

With a nod, Mario led the way to the castle, Goombella and me following.

* * *

**Author's Note: Next chapter, we have a castle and a mouse! As well as a creepy chest (that I will make a point of NOT opening), traps, skeletons, and a cliffhanger! Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	8. Chapter 8: Hooktail's Castle

**Author's Note: And here we go! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 8: Hooktail's Castle**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Okay, so…" I said, looking at the large rock on a raised hill within sight of the castle in the distance. "What do we do with this?"

"See those indentions in the rock?" Koops asked, pointing to said indentions.

"…oh," I said. I would have face-palmed if my hands weren't full. Nevertheless, I inserted the stones into the rock and stepped back. It shook for a few moments, then sunk into the ground, revealing a staircase.

"Sweet!" I said. I started to go down the staircase when a Pipe suddenly shot up. A pipe appeared near Hooktail's castle in the distance, as well.

"There we go!" Goompa said, he sitting on the pipe. "Nice and fast!"

"…what if I WANTED to walk through the tunnel, huh?" I retorted.

"Then maybe the waffles should just dance the tango!" Goompa said, sticking his tongue out at me. He then back flipped and swam through the ground, blipping out of existence a few feet away.

Koops, meanwhile, was staring at the spot Goompa disappeared from, his eyes wide and his jaw dropped.

"But… how…" he stuttered.

"Don't try to make sense of it, trust us," Goombella said, sighing and shaking her head.

"Come on, let's try this… THING," I said, walking to the pipe.

"I've… I've never tried a pipe before," Koops said. "Is it safe?"

"No, you're going to die a slow and horrible death," Goombella said, her voice so serious even I had to stop and turn to look at her. "…I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"

"DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT," Koops said, eyes still wide and a hand over his chest.

"Don't worry, man," I said, patting him on the shoulder. "I won't lie, it's not the most plesent of experiences, but it's not terrible."

"Oh… alright," Koops sighed.

"Ladies first," I said, offering the pipe to Goombella. She jumped in, Koops following. I jumped after them.

We rode the pipe for a bit, then were launched out in front of the castle. We entered it, then stopped to gape at the place.

It was big and majestic, but at the same time… old. It almost made me curious as to who the original owners were, and what they used the castle for.

…at least, I WOULD have been curious if I wasn't stuck on the fact that this was a wee bit too familiar to the first castle I entered in my last adventure. If I didn't know better, I would think Nintendo was just recycling old gaming elements (actually, I'm pretty sure they do that often, but out of respect for them I'll cut them some slack). I was honestly half expecting to run into multi-colored Koopas, a giant staircase submerged in water, and a cell with a pink-

I suddenly froze and clutched at my shoulders, crossing my chest with my arms when I started to think of… of her. No, I couldn't remember her name, it's too painful… God, so beautiful… so wonderful… so… Bowser, how could you do that to her!

As these thoughts went through my mind, it felt like my heart was being driven apart by a chisel and hammer. I fell to my knees, weak from the pain of remembering her. I tried to push the memories back, hide them under a shell like I've been doing, but… but…

"Mario?"

I looked up to see Goombella looking down at me in concern.

"Are… you okay?" she asked softly.

"I… yeah, just… don't worry, I'm fine," I said, standing up. Koops gasped and pointed to me, and Goombella widened her eyes.

"What?" I asked. Koops pointed to my right shoulder. I looked to see there were deep gashes there. Apparently, I had gripped it so hard with my Nightmare hand that I ripped it apart. This point was proven by the fact that my left glove was torn at the tips, the black claws showing.

"Oh," I said, staring at it. "Yeah. I guess that won't heal under a band-aid, huh?"

"Mario, this is-" Goombella started, then gasped in shock when she saw the gashes suddenly repair themselves in black stitches. It wasn't long until the shoulder was repaired, and the black flesh that was there from the repair turned to my regular pink-ish.

"…cool!" I said, looking at my shoulder. I flexed my right arm. It felt as good as new.

"Wha… how… WHAT'S GOING ON!" Koops shouted, completely dumbfounded.

"Long story," Goombella and I said simultaneously, though Goombella admittedly looked as shocked as Koops.

"You two better tell me all this 'long story' business or I'm gonna go insane," Koops sighed.

"No prob," I said, giving him a thumbs up. After finding a path lower down to cross the water (as the bridge was out), we continued on.

* * *

A bit of exploring later, we entered a room cluttered with skeletons.

"This must be where Hooktail drops it's… leftovers," I said.

"Gee," Goombella said, looking a bit green around the gills, "thanks for that lovely mental image."

"I must admit, though…" I said, picking up a bone, "these things are freakishly clean. You'd think there'd be a bit of rotting flesh here or there, but no. Just clean bones, not a piece of flesh rotting alone in the room as-"

"MARIO," Goombella snapped. "Please. Stop."

Koops looked about ready to throw up. Goombella wasn't much better.

"…right, sorry," I said, dropping the bone.

"Wait a second…" Koops said, looking past me. He ran up to a set of bones, which looked oddly blue in the light.

"This looks like… oh no… DAD!" cried Koops, dropping to his knees next to the bones. Goombella and I were silent. I took off my hat in respect. Goombella shook her helmet to the ground and bowed her head as well.

"He… he's gripping a letter," Koops said, pulling a sheet of paper out of the bone-y hand of the skeleton. "Should… should I read it?"

"Well, he is your father," I said. "I think you kind of have a right to it."

Nodding, Koops read the letter out loud:

"I have attempted to battle Hooktail, but have failed in said attempt. She was simply too strong for me, crushing me under her perfectly groomed feet-"

"What is with this dragon and feet?" I interrupted. "I mean, seriously?"

Speaking of, Goombella kicked me in the shin for interrupting, glaring at me.

"Right… sorry…" I said, bowing my head again. "Continue."

Koops nodded and continued, tears in his eyes:

"-and crushing me to pieces. I now lay here, leaving behind in this world the last of my wisdom. Anyone who wishes to defeat this wench, be aware that there is a badge in this castle that can make your hammer sound like something that begins with 'cr' and end in 'icket'. Alas, already fog veils my eyes… my final words go to my son, Kolorado… I am proud of who you are and what you've become… may you always find your way through life."

Koops was silent for a moment.

"Wait a minute… my son KOLORADO?" Koops repeated. "Oooh… I guess this isn't my dad after all… heh heh…"

"…awkward," I said, picking up Goombella's helmet and placing it on her head as I put my own cap back on.

"But… hey, do those bones over there look… strange to you?"

I turned to look, and Koops was right. I saw three things odd with those bones.

They were tinted red.

Even though they were dead, it felt like I was looking at something alive.

It was standing up and glaring at us.

…yeah, of those three, guess which freaked us out the most.

"_**For disturbing our eternal rest, we shall drag you down to the lowest pits of the Underwear…**_" the skeleton said in a demonic voice as the others rose up and rushed to attack us. Koops screamed, Goombella glared, and I held out my arm, the Sword appearing in a flash of light. I slashed forward, and I felt as if I slashed through a dark substance between the bones. The skeleton in front of me screamed and fell apart. I blinked.

"Wow, like the Master Sword!" I said, getting into battle position.

"What… what is that-" Koops started, but I couldn't hear him over the sound of my sword slashing through the demonic skeletons. I slashed and I slashed, and the skeletons fell with each swipe. I jumped up, then slashed down to take down a whole group of skeletons. I looked up, and I was face-to-face with a red skeleton.

"_**Back, mortal!**_" it said, pointing at me. "_**You cannot defeat me! I am perfect evil incarnate! I am invincible! I am-**_"

He couldn't finish, as I slashed right through him, completely destroying him. He fell to the ground, the dark spirit leaving the bones, which turned back to a normal color. As soon as that skeleton died, all the others did as well.

"Wha… how…" stuttered Koops.

"Remember what we told you about it being a long story?" Goombella reminded him.

"Y-yeah…" Koops said.

"Well, this is another one of those times," Goombella said. And that was all that was said about that as we moved on to the next room. Koops, still totally confused, just followed in a daze.

* * *

"Hey, look there," I said, pointing to a cell, which was holding a treasure chest inside. We were in a dungeon-like area now, full of cells that had skeletons, spiders, and more skeletons (by this point, I was beginning to think that most of the skeletons were fake and here only to freak people out).

"Black chest… evil aura… yeah, REALLY makes ya want to open it, huh?" asked Goombella, eyeing the chest in the cell.

"Well, maybe it has that badge the letter was talking about," I shrugged, hitting a button nearby. The cell door slid open. The three of us entered, and then the door slammed shut behind us.

"Haha!" the chest said in a dark voice, shaking. "You fell for it! The traps in this castle prevent any who enter from leaving! I'd like to see you leave now!"

"Okay," I shrugged, turning to the cell door and taking off my already torn left glove, showing off the claw. With one SWIPE, the iron bars fell apart as easily as a knife through butter. A very sharp knife through very soft butter.

"…uh," the chest said.

"If you'll excuse us…" I said as I left, Goombella and Koops following.

"W-wait!" the chest called. "Aren't you looking for a badge? Well, maybe I have that badge! Maybe-"

"Hey, what's this?" asked Koops, bending down and picking something up from the ground. I turned to look, and I saw he was holding a round badge with a picture of a cricket on it.

"Hey, that must be the badge," I said. "Good going, Koops."

"Uh… thanks!" Koops said. With the badge in hand, we all left.

"Wait!" the chest called. "Hey! …I'm so lonely…"

* * *

We found ourselves, again, in a new room. This one was full of treasure chests, but most were open, and we saw in the middle of the room a mouse with red high-heels, lipstick, and a mask. Her tail was also shaped into a heart at the end.

"Hmm?" she asked, turning to face us. As soon as her eyes fell on me, her tail began to twitch.

Uh-oh.

"Mm-hmm-hmm, who's THIS hunk of cheese?" she asked, walking up to me.

"Uh… hi?" asked Koops, waving a hand at her.

"Oh, hey there," the mouse said, giving him only the slightest moment of attention before turning back to me.

"Excuse me, but you mind telling us what you're doing here?" Goombella asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Sure, just as soon as you plan on telling me what you're doing here," the mouse retorted, smirking slightly.

"We're going to fight Hooktail," blurted Koops.

"Oh, so it's just a matter of glory?" asked the mouse. "Hm… yes, I can see where you're going with this."

"Right… well, I'm Mario, and this is-" I started.

"Don't tell her our names!" Goombella interjected, glaring at me.

"Okay, sorry," I said. "Just trying to be nice…"

"Well, Mario, my name is Ms. Mouze," the Mouse said, now so close her nose was touching mine. "You are one special man, I must say… not bad on the eyes… and, your eyes themselves… kind… caring…"

"…you're in my bubble," I said simply.

"Then it wouldn't matter all that much if I do… this," Ms. Mouze said before kissing me. As soon as she was done, she back flipped and landed on the nearby window.

"Hey, you floozy!" Goombella shouted, looking furious. "What do you think you're doing, huh!"

Ms. Mouze began laughing, hanging on to the edge of the window by a hand… sorry, paw.

"That badge you found will work if you place it on your blade," she said simply. "Trust me, it will help you in your quest. Farewell, we'll meet again, you hunk of cheese you!"

She jumped out the window and vanished.

"…she was kinda cute," Koops muttered, then shook his head. "Nono, Koopie Koo, remember her…"

"That total FLOOZY!" shouted Goombella. "Can you BELIEVE her, Mario?"

"…well, she's better than Bow at least," I shrugged.

"Who?" asked Goombella.

"…nothing," I said. "Koops, can I see that badge?"

Koops handed it over, and I placed it on the sword. I hit a nearby wall with it, and the sound of a cricket came from the hit.

"Ooooh, nice," I grinned, spinning the sword in my hand. "That dragon won't know what hit her."

Sword in hand and friends nearby, we left the room, heading for Hooktail's chamber.

* * *

**Author's Note: And so we near the final chapter to this ark. Until the epic battle next time, this has been Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	9. Chapter 9: Hooktail

**Author's Note: And now, the fight with Hooktail! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 9: Hooktail**_

* * *

I threw the huge doors open and entered with my friends, looking around for the great red dragon. It didn't take long at all, however, for in just a moment, I saw her looking down at me.

"Uh… hi?" I waved.

"Hm… more plunderers, I see…" Hooktail said, narrowing her eyes into a glare. "Well… you three look quite tasty… I'm sure you would make a satisfying stew… and the bottoms of your feet smell like they would make excellent spices when combined with the right ingredients…"

"Okay, again with the foot thing?" I asked with a sigh, summoning the sword. "Suppose I can just forget about settling this peacefully then…"

"Hooktail…" Koops growled, getting into a battle stance. "You will PAY for what you've done to all those innocent people!"

"Innocent?" scoffed Hooktail. "Don't make me laugh, child! None of you are truly innocent! You're all full of sin, worth nothing more than-"

It was then she was knocked back by a hit by my sword, which I threw at her. It made a chirping noise as it hit her.

"YOU NEVER INTERRUPT A DRAGON IN MID SPEECH, YOU LITTLE… ooh…" Hooktail said, her face turning green. "That chirp… it isn't… oh no… I got some REALLY bad food poisoning once from a cricket…"

"…kind of a silly weakness, but it works!" I said as I caught the sword. "Let's go, guys!"

The three of us ran at Hooktail. Goombella slammed into her shin, causing her weak leg to buckle. Koops shot through the air and hit her in the jaw. I jumped into the air and delivered a shattering punch with my Nightmare hand, causing her to fall to the ground in pain. I stood over her, holding my sword to her throat.

"Wow, that was easy…" Goombella muttered.

"W-wait!" Hooktail said. "If you let me go… I'll give you a thousand coins!"

"No thanks," I shrugged. "I already got enough coins."

"H-how about a super-extra rare badge?" Hooktail offered.

"I got the only badge I need right here," I replied, pointing to the badge on the sword.

"Well… I suppose I could let you sniff the bottom of my feet," Hooktail said, actually BLUSHING as she said this. "This is a rare honor that I only give to-"

"Okay, ENOUGH with your fetishes already!" I said. "You've caused everyone enough pain, and frankly, it's REALLY getting awkward to have you offer to have me indulge in your fetish with you."

"Well… you're not a very trusting person at all, are you?" Hooktail asked.

"Not when it comes to dragons that pillage towns and kill people, no," I shrugged.

"Well, there's one thing I think you forgot about dragons," Hooktail said with a grin.

Wait… she was grinning? Not a good sign…

"What?" I asked.

"They can fly," she said before quickly flipping over and flying out of a hole in the tower. However, I managed to react just in the nick of time as I dug my claw into her to keep on her as she flew out. She roared in pain as I held on and began to spin around to knock me off. I felt REALLY dizzy, but I kept my head clear and I slowly climbed on her back and to her head. I held up the sword and attempted to slam it into her skull. Unfortunately, she caught wind of what I was trying to do in the nick of time, so she twisted in the air and landed on another part of the castle. I was knocked off her back and fell with a clatter on the wall of the castle. Hooktail got up and roared, chasing me on foot. I forced myself up and ran away, panting.

And I know what you're thinking: What kind of hero are you? Running away with your tail between your legs? Stand your ground and fight!

Well, in my defense, what would YOU have done if a dragon, the size of a tank, is charging at you head-on? Usually, when it comes to giants, my fight-or-flight response leans heavily toward flight.

Anyway, I ran through a small entry into a tower in the castle, hoping I could get away from her. I mean, after all, something that huge can't get into something with a small door, right?

Wrong.

See, I've learned that when a giant faces a small door, they don't give up. No, they just make the door a little bit bigger. And this is exactly what Hooktail did, forcing me to duck to avoid the wreckage of the blast. Hooktail jumped up and lunged at the ground where I was. I rolled out of the way in time, however, and she hit the ground, causing everything under it to shake and fall apart.

* * *

_**Enter Edwin:**_

* * *

Finding myself in the basement of an apparently abandoned castle, I continued to work on my formula. I had it that last time, and through memory and trial-and-error, I was finally able to re-create it.

"Oh, finally!" I said, holding the Cold Fusion up. "After all this time, I have created Cold Fusion! …again!"

I gently placed it back on the desk and walked to the other side of the room to record my findings in my Science Journal. I didn't get so much as two sentences out when I heard a CRASH!

I spun around to see that my desk, along with the Cold Fusion, was crushed under a huge piece of the ceiling that fell for reasons beyond my grasp. Eye twitching, I fell to my knees in front of the wreckage.

"NOOOOOO!" I screamed to the sky, pulling on my hair.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

…right.

Anyway, I found a way out and continued running, Hooktail close by me. She slammed her tail at me, but I caught it with my Nightmare hand, hitching a ride. She seemed to be expecting this, however, and flung me into the air with her tail. As I fell back down, she threw a rock straight up into the air toward me. I stared at the huge chunk of rock I was shooting toward with wide eyes. There was no way in heck that I would survive if I was hit by-

_PUNCH IT!_

A familiar voice seemed to scream this in my head as I looked at the chunk. Shaking my head, I did as the voice instructed: I pulled back my left arm, then slammed into the rock, Nightmare-hand first. There was a huge CRACK!, and all that was left was a few chunks floating around me. I was still falling down, however, with my Nightmare fist extended, and crashed right into Hooktail's back. She roared in pain and took off toward the sky again. I was prepared, however, and began climbing up the spikes on her back faster than I did last time. Hooktail didn't try as hard to knock me off, so that was a plus, too.

I was soon at her head, and we were flying over the tower we first encountered in. I held out my arm, and the Crystal Sword appeared in a flash of light, backhanded, as if it knew ahead of time what I was planning on doing. With a scream, I slammed the sword into Hooktail's head. She screamed and writhed around, and eventually fell toward the castle. I shut my eyes tight, braced for impact.

When we crashed through the ceiling, the shock forced me off Hooktail and caused me to roll to the ground, panting.

"Mario!"

Goombella and Koops ran up to me.

"You okay?" Goombella asked.

"Fine," I replied, standing up and wiping some blood off my lip. I saw, to my surprise, Hooktail was actually still alive. Not only that, but she was glowing from the Crystal Sword.

"What the…?" I started. Suddenly, I could see a black heart-shaped object appear on her chest.

"Is that her…?" Goombella started. A glint appeared in her eyes.

"Koops!" she said, turning to him. "You want to take her down, right?"

"Y-yeah…" Koops said shakily, but at the same time, determined.

"Well do it now!" Goombella said. "Use every ounce of your power, and strike at her heart!"

"You think that'll work?" Koops asked.

"Of course!" Goombella said.

"Okay…" Koops replied with a nod, getting into his shell and charging up.

"…do you?" I whispered.

"Beats me," Goombella replied, also in a whisper. "I'm just guessing here."

But from her tone of voice, I could tell that Goombella's guess was something she was willing to bet money on.

Anyway, after charging, Koops shot forward and collided with the heart. There was a shattering noise as the heart was hit. Hooktail's eyes widened, and she fell forward. As she did, her entire being went into pure white, save the black heart, and she faded away into little sparkles of light. The only things she left behind were an orb of darkness and a blue shell.

"Hm?" I asked, walking up to the orb. "What's this?"

"It looks like… it looks like what was left of her heart," Goombella said. "It must have been so full of darkness, it turned into… that."

"Makes sense…"

I bent down and touched it with my Nightmare hand. Suddenly, it exploded into black particles before being sucked into my hand. My eyes widened at the experience. All I can say is… wow. It felt almost like I was injected with pure caffeine.

"WOO!" I said, flexing my Nightmare fingers. "Okay, THAT was a rush!"

I began to feel something deep inside me move, but I pushed it out of my mind, passing it off as just in my head, when I noticed Koops walking up to the blue shell.

"Wait… is this…" he began. He touched the shell gently. "…dad?"

"Yes, son?" a voice replied. Koops jumped back in shock (as did I) when an old Koopa suddenly emerged from the shell, stretching his arms and legs.

"Wow!" he said, looking around. "Hooktail must really be gone, isn't she?"

"D-dad!" Koops said, wrapping his father in a tight hug. "Oh dad, it's you! I thought I would never see you again!"

The father blinked in surprise.

"Koops, that you?" he asked, taking a step back and grinning. "Wow, you got BIG since I saw you last!"

"Yeah dad, I guess, but what about YOU?" asked Koops. "You were gone for so long… well, we thought your Game was Over!"

"Actually… I'm kinda surprised I made it, too," the Koopa said, scratching his head. "I remember Hooktail tricking me, and I ended up being swallowed… after that… oh, I picked this up and hid in my shell for what I thought was a brief nap."

He pulled out a star that seemed to glow with the same material the blade of the Crystal Sword glowed with.

"Wait… that's the Crystal Star!" Goombella said.

"Crystal what?" asked Koops.

"We'll explain later," I said, then turned to the father. "I know you must be pretty exhausted right now-"

"Actually, I feel great!" Koops' father said. "Like I just woke up from a great nap!"

"Must be the magic of the Crystal Star…" muttered Goombella to herself. I could tell she was going to just dive right into some history books as soon as we were done here.

"Well… do you mind, if we-" I started.

"Say no more," Koops' father said, smiling as he handed me the Crystal Star. "You're friends with my son here. I trust his judgment. I don't know what you plan to do with it, but whatever it is must be worth your while."

"Thanks!" I grinned back, reaching out to grab the star. My Nightmare hand jerked away, however, and I felt the sword move of it's own accord. I allowed the sword to move without resistance, and I soon found myself touching it's tip to the star. They both started glowing, and the Crystal Star, in a flash of light, shrunk down and infused itself into the hilt of the Crystal Sword.

"Alright!" I said after recovering from the light show. "One down, six to go!"

"So… what's happened while I was gone?" Koops' dad asked.

"C'mon dad," Koops smiled, leading his father out of the tower. "I'll explain along the way."

With that, the four of us left the tower to get back to the village and rest.

* * *

**Author's Note: …wow, I did this in one sitting! Next chapter will cover Peach, a return from someone who was blown up in the last book (not her, sorry fans…) and the ever-mysterious Nozan! Until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	10. Chapter 10: Three Sides, Ark 1

**Author's Note: Okay, now let's see if we can't have three points of views in one chapter! Let's-a go!**

* * *

_**Chapter 10: Three sides, ark 1**_

* * *

_**Enter Peach:**_

* * *

The men with the Xs on their shirts led me through several hallways until we reached a large throne room. Sitting in front of a computer was a large man, covered just like all the others with Xs, though his outfit looked slightly different… more elite as the case might be. He also held a scepter that seemed to radiate power.

"Sir!" a soldier in an X outfit said, saluting. "We have brought Peach as instructed, sir!"

"Excellent…" the important looking man said, stepping forward. "So, little girl, tell me… what is it you have done with the map?"

I looked away from him, refusing to tell him anything.

"Oh, a spicy one, are you?" the man asked. "No matter… we have ways to get people to talk-"

"SIR! SIR GRODUS!" a soldier with an X screamed, running in and flailing his arms around in panic. Grodus, the large man with the scepter, sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Yes, what is it?" he snapped at the soldier. "Speak, X-Naut!"

"It's… well, you know that Crystal Star we knew about in Hooktail's Castle?" the X-Naut asked.

"Yes, what about it?" Grodus asked.

"Well… it's already taken," the X-Naut said, wincing.

"WHAT!" screamed Grodus, hitting the scepter on the ground. "Who DARES defy the X-Nauts and steal the Crystal Star from us?"

"Uh… this dude, sir," the X-Naut said, pulling out a remote and pushing a button. A video played on a screen above, and on it, I saw a female Goomba and two male Koopas walking along side…

"Mario!" I gasped.

"Oh?" Grodus asked with a sneer, looking at me. "So you know this man?"

I mentally cursed myself for giving Mario away like that.

"Hm… I see," Grodus said. "X-Nauts! Take Peach to her room. And make sure no harm comes to her, do you understand me?"

"Sir, yes sir!" the two X-Nauts that took me in said with a salute. After each one took me by an arm, they led me down the hall, through a few elevators, and into a locked room. I had to admit, the room wasn't hideous. However, a prison was a prison. Once again, I felt like a trapped rat.

"Well," I said to myself, sitting on the bed, "looks like I've gotten myself kidnapped… again. And Mario will be coming to save me… again. And Toadsworth is worrying himself sick… AGAIN."

I sighed, resting my face on my hands.

"I feel like I'm in a rut," I continued. "It's always get kidnapped, wait to be saved. At least Bowser is kind enough to supply me with magazines and satellite TV. Still though… why the heck do I have to be totally helpless? Why can't it be the damsel who saves the hero in distress?"

I stood up and walked to the door, glaring at it.

"And it's this stupid thing that's the only thing keeping me from escaping!" I said, kicking it. To my amazement, it swung open after being kicked. I blinked in astonishment.

"Well… okay, better keep a note of that for next time I'm kidnapped," I said to myself, running forward. There were only two ways out: The Elevator and an already open door. Seeing as the elevator wouldn't turn on, I walked forward into the room. The lights in it clicked on, and I saw a huge computer sitting in it. A camera was situated on top of it, and it was focused on me.

"GREETINGS, PEACH," a robotic voice greeted. I meeped as I jumped back.

"Are you… talking to me?" I asked, walking up to the computer and tapping it's screen.

"YES, I AM," the robotic voice said. "I AM TEC-XX, THE MAINFRAME OF THE X-NAUT BASE. I AM A PERFECT COMPUTER, FREE OF FLAWS."

"…would one of those 'flaws' be modesty?" I asked.

"I AM ASSUMING THAT WAS A JOKE," TEC said. "HAHA. FAT CHANCE."

"Ex-CUSE me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I AM SORRY, I WAS JUST CONVERSING WITH MY SISTER PROGRAM," TEC apologized. "I WORRY SOMETIMES SHE GETS TO ME. WHENEVER I SPEAK TO HER, I ALWAYS CRAVE CAKE."

"…right, free of flaws," I muttered. "Anyway, what do you want me here for?"

"WELL," TEC explained, "WHEN I CAUGHT SIGHT OF YOU, I ENCOUNTERED A GLITCH IN MY PROGRAM. IT WAS UNLIKE ANYTHING I HAVE FELT BEFORE. I HAVE EXAMINED IT AND TRIPLE CHECKED EVERY SQUARE MICROMETER OF MY PROGRAMMING, AND I HAVE COME TO THIS CONCLUSION: I WISH TO SPEAK TO YOU. I WISH TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU."

"Wait…" I said, what he was saying clicking in my head. "Do you mean… no, that can't be, you're just a computer!"

"PLEASE," TEC begged, "I WISH TO KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME."

"Well…" I said. "Maybe… you're in love… with me?"

This last part I whispered because it sounded so absurd.

"…LOVE?" TEC asked. "WHAT IS LOVE? "

As he asked, several websites showed up on his screen, apparently ever website that could be found when searching "Love" in Toogle (including a few catchy songs on YouToad).

"Well…" I tried to explain. "Love is… well, it's when you notice every little feature of someone. It's when you want to be with them all the time. Love is when you want to make them laugh just so you can hear that wonderful sound. It's when that special sparkle in their eyes makes your heart skip every time…"

As I spoke, Mario came to my mind. I sighed, rubbing my arm.

"…I HAVE DEFINITIONS FOR THE WORDS YOU SPEAK," TEC said, "BUT I AM AFRAID I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT IN WHICH YOU SPEAK. PRINCESS PEACH, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A DEAL WITH YOU."

"Why should I?" I snapped, glaring up at him. "Your people kidnapped me and stuffed me down here!"

"I UNDERSTAND YOU ARE ANGRY," TEC said. "THAT EMOTION I UNDERSTAND. HOWEVER, IF YOU WOULD SIMPLY TEACH ME MORE OF THIS THING YOU CALL… LOVE, THEN I WILL GRANT A DESIRE OF YOURS. OF COURSE, I CANNOT ALLOW YOU TO EXCAPE, NOR CAN I DIRECTLY GO AGAINST AN ORDER THE GREAT AND MIGHTY SIR GRODUS SPECIFICALLY SAYS…"

"Okay… well, can I send an Email?" I asked. "You know, to tell Mario that I'm alright?"

"…YES, I ASSUME THAT WOULD BE ACCEPTABLE," TEC said. "SIMPLY TYPE YOUR EMAIL ON MY KEYBOARD AND I WILL SEND IT."

"Alright," I nodded, walking up to the keyboard and typing. I wasn't very used to this Email stuff, but I didn't take all day, which was good. After I was done, I hit the send button, and there was a beeping noise.

"YOU MESSAGE HAS BEEN SENT," TEC said. "PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR ROOM."

"Okay…" I said, walking to the door. "Uh… well then… see you TEC…"

"GOODNIGHT PRINCESS PEACH…" TEC said as the door closed behind me. If I didn't know better, I could have sworn I heard him sigh.

Little did I know that would only be the beginning of something I never would have thought possible…

* * *

_**Enter Bowser:**_

* * *

(A note from the author: Bowser's writing was so terrible, a few creative liberties had to be taken to make it even slightly readable. I apologize ahead of time for any mistranslations. However, I assume you would rather a mistranslation over reading something like: "bwahaha i am the most evil koopa in the world so dont you forget that and another thing" etc.)

* * *

Ha! Yeah, bet you didn't see ME coming, did ya? I know, you're probably worshiping me right now, wondering how I survived that attack from that stupid plumber in the last book. Well, I'll tell you why: I'm invincible! Nothing can destroy me! Even if it felt really weird like I was floating in nothing after being blown up, that was probably the world being so scared of me it ran away crying to its mommy when it tried to blow me up and I was all "Grr, back up world!" and it was "EEK, IT'S BOWSER, HE'S SO HANDSOME AND SCARY!" and then they ran!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, I was entering my castle all epic like, and all the Koopas were bowing to me as I entered. They said Kammy would be there in a bit, so I should wait in the back. While walking there, I made one do some sit-ups on the spot and laughed as he sweated from the pain. So when I got to the back, Kammy bursts in and tells me that-get this-PEACH WAS KIDNAPPED! By someone other than ME! Oh, I was so angry, I could have broken a pillar in half!

But Kammy calmed me down by telling me about some legendary treasure. Something about Crystal Stars or something. She told me that greedy Mario was after them, so obviously I had to take them before him! And who knows, if Peach sees me with Crystal Stars or whatever, maybe she'll finally like me! So, I jumped in my airship and blasted off to get those Crystal Stars! Kammy had to rush on her broom to keep up and pant something about directions, but right then I didn't need no stinkin' directions! I flew where the wind took me!

* * *

_**Enter Nozan:**_

* * *

I was sitting at a large computer, watching multiple screens change.

"Wow…" I breathed as the Dream Keeper pulled out the power of darkness from a Dragon.

"What wow?" the intern, Tom, asked, walking up with my coffee.

"Just the Dream Keeper's powers waking up is all," I said, taking the coffee. "He's catching on a lot faster than any we've had before, though… and I don't understand how he manages to wield both the power of light and that ugly Nightmare attached to his soul. Double-"

"Double cream, three sugars," Tom finished, grinning up at me with a look that reminded me of a kid who tried so hard to please his parents, even if it meant getting his hands filthy to make the best finger painting he could make. Impressed by his memory, I took a sip of my coffee and turned back to the screen…

…where upon I immidietly spat it out in shock.

"MERLIN!" I shouted. "GET MERLIN ON THE LINE, QUICK!"

"Uh, yes sir!" Tom said, getting a red phone-like device made for inter-Dream communication and dialing Merlin's number. He handed it to me, and I snatched it away as Merlin picked up.

"Blue?" he asked.

"Merlin, there's a-wait, blue?" I asked.

"Yeah," Merlin said. "You know how many people say yellow when they answer their phone? Well, I figured blue must be feeling left out, so I said that instead of yellow."

"Wha… look, that's not important right now!" I said. "The Dream-"

"I take offence to that!" Merlin said. "Without blue, the sky wouldn't be like we see it today! The oceans wouldn't look pleasing to take a dip in! Picasso-"

"NIGHTMARES!" I finally screamed. "THREE OF THEM! IN THE DREAM!"

"…well you don't have to yell," Merlin said.

"Right sir," I cringed. "Sorry sir. It won't happen again, sir…"

"Now then… three Nightmares?" Merlin asked.

"Yes sir…" I said. "The Shadow Sirens."

There was silence for a moment.

"My my…" Merlin said. "That IS unsettling… the Lord must be getting desperate if he's allowing three of his most elite soldiers to act under the command of a Dream being. Then again… Beldam has been proven to be a traitor, even in life. Yes… hm, I think this will cause for some careful strategizing…"

"Sir?" I asked.

"No need to fret," Merlin assured me. "I have faith in this child. Pax is going to mop the floor with them, so long as he uses the sword like he's been doing."

"Well… if you say so, sir," I sighed.

"Hey, no need to sound all mope-y!" Merlin said. "Take a break, eat a s'more, stretch a bit! You haven't been off that dang-blasted machine since Pax's first Dream!"

"…S'more, sir?" I asked.

"Have you ever seen someone stressed out eat a s'more and enjoy it?" Merlin asked.

"Well… no-" I started.

"There you go then," Merlin said. "Take a break from observation for a bit, that's an order. And maybe you'll let Tom get a shot."

"Y… yes sir," I sighed. "Right away sir."

"And cheer up, that's another order!" Merlin said. "Don't forget that S'more, a Gas oven is a great place for cooking those marshmallows!"

With that, he hung up. I sighed as I tossed the phone to Tom.

"Take lead point in observation," I told him as I left the room. "Merlin's ordered me to take a break…"

"Really?" Tom asked, his big eyes sparkling. "You're… really trusting ME with this job?"

"Yeah," I said. "Try not to screw anything up."

"You got it!" Tom saluted. "I won't let the Dreamers down!"

With that, he jumped in the seat and stared intently at the screen. Shaking my head, I left the room, wondering where I could find marshmallows and a gas stove.

* * *

**Author's Note: Kudos to my Mom for teaching me the whole "cooking marshmallows on the stove" thing. Now I can never be without proper s'mores! Well, next chapter is re-visiting the Thousand Year Door, and actually RESTING (you know, the thing they never got to do in the last book) so until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	11. Chapter 11: Iuka and George

**Author's Note: Time to unleash that power over the Crystal Star to find the next location and actually SLEEP! Well, enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 11: Iuka and George**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"So wait," I said, "you wanna come with us?"

"Well… if that's okay," Koops said. "I mean… what you guys are doing with getting these Crystal Stars and all… I'd like to be a part of it."

"Well… what do you think, Goombella?" I asked, turning to her.

"Why not?" shrugged Goombella.

"Okay," I said, turning to Koops and smiling. "You're in."

"Really?" Koops asked, grinning. "Well… thanks!"

He turned to face the few people that gathered: The Mayor, his father, and his girlfriend, Koopie Koo.

"Koopie…" Koops said, reaching a hand to her. He pulled away, shutting her eyes to prevent tears from coming out.

"Koops, you're… you big… IDIOT!" she shouted, shoving on Koops' shoulders. "How could you go out and get yourself KILLED!"

"B-but Koopie-" Koops started.

"I HATE YOU!" Koopie screamed. "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

She ran away from the scene, keeping her face covered. Koops had an arm reached out to her, his mouth gaping.

"…uh," I said, not really knowing what to say. "I, er… sorry, man."

"…let's go," Koops said, keeping his head down as he headed toward the exit of the town.

"Wait, Koops-" started his father, but Koops didn't seem to hear as he left. I started to follow, but his father stopped me by putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Take care of him, will you?" he asked softly.

"Of course," I nodded, managing a smile. He smiled back and let go, giving a salute. After I saluted back, I left after Koops, Goombella following.

"Mario?" Goombella asked as we caught up.

"Hm?" I turned my head to her.

"…you're a good person," she said. I blinked, having been caught off guard.

"Uh… thanks?" I said.

"So," Koops said, finally lifting his head, "where are we going?"

"Rougeport," I said. "We'll be going through a pipe to-"

Suddenly, my pocket began to vibrate, the music from Super Mario World playing.

"What in the…" I muttered, pulling an object that looked a lot like a GBA SP out of my pocket.

"Hey, that's a Mailbox SP!" Koops said. "I didn't know you had one of those!"

"Apparently I do," I said, opening the thing. I saw an email on it, though the return address was scrambled. I opened the email and read:

"Dear Mario,

You don't have to worry about me, I'm fine. These people are holding me captive, but they're not causing me any harm. Please stay safe, Mario. I will be praying to the Stars for you.

-Peach."

"Well… Peach is safe, but I'm wondering how she managed to email me when she's trapped," I said, closing and pocketing the Mailbox SP again. "C'mon, we have a giant door to go to."

With that, the three of us set off again.

* * *

A walk and a trip through a pipe later, we were in the Rougeport sewers and looking up at the Thousand Year Door.

"Wow…" gaped Koops, staring at it.

"Okay, here's the map…" I said, pulling out the map and standing on the pillar like I did last time. "Hm… maybe I have to…"

I summoned the Crystal Sword, then jammed it into the pillar. There was a flash of light, and the Crystal Star on the hilt shot a beam of light into the map. The image wavered a bit before returning to normal, the lights fading. I dispelled the sword and held the map up to examine it. There was a new picture on it: A giant, pale tree on a hill, with a green Crystal Star in it.

"Uh… where's that?" Koops asked, looking over my shoulder. The both of us looked to Goombella, showing her the map.

"Hey," she said, "I may be a smart girl, but I just got here myself! I know about as much as you guys, probably less. We should take it to the professor."

"Professor?" asked Koops.

"Professor Frankly, he's not far from here," I said, folding up the map. "Let's go."

* * *

"Hm… oh!" Frankly said, examining the map.

"Where is it?" I asked, flexing my claw under the new glove Goombella went out and bought while Frankly was examining the map.

"It's a place called Boggly Woods," Frankly explained. "It's inhabited by small creatures called Punies."

"Accurate name," I muttered. "So, which way do we go?"

"…Mario, it's almost dark out," Frankly said. "Don't you think it would be wiser to stay in town and rest for the night."

"You mean… I actually get to have moments of rest in this adventure?" I asked in a breathless whisper.

"Well of course!" Frankly said. "You can't go out exhausted and-ERT!"

"BLESS YOU!" I sobbed, picking up and hugging Frankly. "OH, BLESS YOUR SOUL!"

"Er… you're welcome?" Frankly said. "…please put me down."

* * *

_**Enter Iuka:**_

* * *

The clattering of coins woke me up from my daydream. I looked up at the pile of Coins on the table in front of me. I looked up at George's grinning face.

"Today's profit from the Shop next door," he explained. "This is your share."

"Um… thanks, but I made a decent amount of tips today," I replied softly, tapping the tip jar, which was about a fourth full of coins.

I suppose I should explain our situation quickly before I move on:

When we arrived at Rougeport, George and I had nothing but each other. That first night spent on the streets… George seemed totally comfortable, but I was scared out of my mind. Eventually, I got a job working at the Inn/Pub, and George worked as a delivery man for the Toad Shop. We both made enough money to keep food on the table, and the man working at the Inn is very nice. He even offered the both of us lodging, but George seems to prefer sleeping outside. He says it helps him learn more about where we are, but I've managed to make him come inside and sleep in a decent bed the past few days.

So, back to where I was a moment ago…

"Iuka," sighed George, shaking his head. "Oh poor, sweet, naïve Iuka. I know you're not used to the concept of money-don't get me wrong, I'm not really used to it either-but generally, you're supposed to save a little bit up for personal items. And besides, if a friend offers you a gift, it's rude not to accept it."

"Well… okay, if you say so," I sighed, taking the coins and placing them in a little box. I didn't correct George, but I actually WAS saving up for something: A little notebook to draw in. I drew on a few napkins here and there and I had a lot of fun with it, so I thought I could get a notebook and do it on paper. It was about then a group walking into the Pub, looking exhausted.

"I'll let you handle this," George nodded as he parted. Patting down my dress, I looked up at the travelers, who sat down at the table. There was a female Goomba, a make Koopa, and a man with a red hat, blue overalls, and kind eyes. When my eyes fell on his left gloved hand, my heart skipped a beat, but I wasn't sure why…

"Uh… h-hello," I said with a bow. "Welcome to the Rougeport Pub and Inn. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yeah," the man said, stretching his arm, "how much for dinner and a room?"

"Uh… ten coins each, sir," I said.

"Sweet, that's perfect," the man said, tossing me 40 coins. "Two rooms and three dinners, then. Keep the change."

"T-thank you sir!" I said with a bow, taking their orders. After the three had eaten, I led them up to their rooms. The Goomba went into one and the Koopa went into another.

"G'Night, Mario," the Goomba yawned, peeking her head out the door. "Night Koops. Remember to lock your windows so Ninjas don't sneak in and slit your throats in your sleep."

With that, she closed the door.

"She… she's kidding, right?" the Koopa asked nervously.

"Of course, there are no Ninjas in Rougeport!" the man replied. The Koopa let out a sigh of relief.

"However…" the man muttered. "I guess there are very stealthy Rouges…"

With that, the Koopa ran into the room to lock all the windows, I assumed. The man began to enter the room, but I put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Um… excuse me?" I asked.

"Yeah?" the man asked, turning to me.

"Can I see your…?" I asked, pointing to his left hand.

"Oh!" the man appeared taken aback. "Well, uh… you might not-"

"Please," I begged. "There's… something about it."

"Well… alright," the man sighed, slipping the glove off. I gasped when I saw the claw that was under it. The man tried to pull back, but I caught the hand and began to gently stroke it, tears welling in my eyes. That hand… it was Coron, I knew it.

"Coron…" I whispered. I looked up and for a moment, I could swear it was Coron looking out at me through the man's face.

"I'm sorry," he said honestly. I smiled slightly and gently kissed his hand.

"I forgive you," I whispered. It was then the man yanked it away, looking freaked out.

"O-okay then!" he said nervously, going into his room. "Goodnight, sleep tight, please refrain from going into my room, I'll see you in the morning!"

With that, he slammed the door closed. I didn't mind though. I walked down the stairs, smiling widely now that I knew Coron was here. He might have been inside someone… but he was finally here.

"You look happy," noted George, who was leaning on a wall.

"Oh George!" I said, hugging him. "You'll never believe what happened!"

"Well, maybe you can tell me tomorrow," George said, gently pulling himself out of the hug and moving to the door.

"Oh George, can't you sleep in the room the Innkeeper set up for us?" I asked, getting in his way.

"Iuka…" started George.

"Please?" I squeaked, widening my eyes in a way I knew George couldn't resist.

"Oh, that's just not fair!" moaned George. After a moment, he buckled: "Alright, I guess I can sleep in the room tonight…"

"Horray!" I cheered, leading him by the hand. "Oh, I can't wait to tell you! Okay, you remember Coron, right? Well…"

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

On my side, this was a lot more strange. When Iuka took my clawed hand, I felt for a moment emotions that didn't belong to me. Mainly the usual sorrow, but also… remorse. As I looked at Iuka's face, I felt like I pulled a trick on her and now I was feeling really bad about it.

"I'm sorry," I heard myself say, but I didn't consciously form the words. When Iuka kissed my claw, part of my heart skipped, and another part-the part I knew was me-was getting REALLY freaked out by this whole experience. So, after pulling away, I locked myself in the room and flopped on the bed, tossing the glove on the nightstand.

"What did she want?" Koops asked, making sure the windows were secure.

"Just… something about an old friend," I said, though I had NO idea how I knew that. I took a look at my Nightmare hand.

_Just what kind of secrets are you holding?_ I thought. I swear, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought I heard a chuckle in the back of my head. Nevertheless, I rolled in my bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Interpret this chapter however you please, IukaxCoron shippers. Next chapter is another "filler" then we get back to the action next week! 'Till then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	12. Chapter 12: First Day or Ark 1 Recap

**Author's Notes: And here we have the final rest chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 12: "First Day" (or recap, your choice)**_

* * *

_**Excerpt from Goombella's Journal:**_

* * *

**Day 1 of our adventure:**

Okay, so today was TOTALLY weird. And I'm not talking about the normal kind of weird either, I'm talking about the WEIRD weird. But, I'm being redundant. It started when I started to research the legend of the Thousand Year Door, about a week ago. I liked what I read, and after preparing myself and saying goodbye to my folks, I set off to Rougeport, as that's where all my studying was leading me. When I arrived, I started to ask around for the Crystal Stars, when suddenly I was ambushed by a creepy guy with an X uniform! He had me surrounded by his minions or something, and they began to advance on me, telling me they knew I was looking for the Crystal Stars and they wanted to know what I know! I refused (of course), but they were persistent. And that… is when Mario came.

I mean… it looked like Mario at least, but… his eyes. They weren't that of a grown Italian plumber. They looked like the eyes of a boy my age, I'd say… kind… innocent…

Well, anyway, he saved me, and I learned that he actually-get this-had the map! Stars, I was so excited! I talked him into coming with me, and the two of us got to Professor Frankly. After showing him the map, we went to get to the Thousand Year Door, which turned out to be just below Rougeport. We ran into a really weird, old Goomba that… well, he kinda broke the laws of physics. I still have no idea how he did that, though…

Anyway, we got to the Thousand Year Door and Mario got this weird kind of sword in a flash of light. The map also showed a new location, but we really didn't pay much attention to it. After grabbing it, we left before we were cornered by a black creature Frankly later called a Nightmare. I tried to stop it, but it ended up throwing me into a wall like a ragdoll. Man… I STILL have a headache from that…

I woke up later back at the Professor's house to see Mario's left hand turned into… well, it looked just like the Nightmare's claw. We were told that apparently, Mario had turned into a human/Nightmare hybrid, which he thought was cool, while I thought was just plain creepy.

Well anyway, turns out the first Crystal Star was in a place called Petalburg, so we set off into the sewers to find a pipe connected to it. We encountered a Blooper, and Mario and I fought it down and beat it up… which is when the Blooper's mother came. After ANOTHER battle, we crossed the way and ended up in Petalburg.

There, we saw a dragon land near us and threaten to eat the old Goomba, Goompa, where upon he said he wasn't meant to be eaten and stretched out his mouth so wide it shouldn't have been possible and showed the dragon a time bomb. Screaming, Mario and I ran from the scene as fast as we could. Fortunately, we were far away enough from the blast that we weren't killed. We were close enough, however, to be launched all the way to town. But, you know, we were there, so no real complaints here.

We met with the Mayor of the town and were told the Crystal Star was in the castle of the Dragon, Hooktail, and the only way to get there was to find two stones and place them in some special place to unlock the way ahead. When asked where it was, the old man grinned and pushed a button, where upon we fell through a hole in the ground and wound up in the sewers.

We searched for awhile until we found a sun shaped stone and a moon shaped stone. Both in hand, we made our way to leave the sewers when we came across a Gold Fuzzy. It called for reinforcements, but thanks to Mario and the Crystal Sword (and the stupidity of the monsters), we came out victorious.

We left the sewers and, after a long trek, ended up back at the entrance of the village. There, we ran into a meek-looking Koopa. He asked to come with us so he could get revenge on Hooktail, and we agreed. His girlfriend came at the last minute, however, and asked him to stay. When he refused, she shelled him down (along with Mario) and left in tears. Koops, the Koopa, seemed down, but he shook himself off and continued on with us.

We got to a big boulder with two indentions in it, and Mario put the stones in them. The boulder moved, and a stairway opened up, leading to Hooktail's Castle (of course, Goompa came at the last minute and turned it into a Pipe…). We went through it and were soon at the entrance to the castle. Mario seemed to have an episode when we got there, but he calmed himself down. Then, I noticed that the spot Mario clawed at with the Nightmare hand healed instantly. Mario thought it was cool… I, again, thought it was creepy.

We learned from a note in the hand of a skeleton that Hooktail hated things that sounded like crickets, and there was apparently a badge in the castle that made attacks sound like just that. Well, after beating an army of undead warriors from the Underwhere, we moved on and soon found the badge.

We walked on for a bit and ran into this total floozy named Ms. Mowz. I mean, she was such a complete and total… I don't want to sound repetitive, but she earns this: FLOOZY! She had the NERVE to butt in on our quest, and she KISSED MARIO!

…okay, truthfully, I don't even know why I'm letting that last bit get to me. I mean, his eyes are the only things that even look my age! Him and me… uh… oh geeze, now I REALLY gotta keep anyone from reading this…

Well, at the very least, she told us how to use the badge before scooting off to the next ride on the Floozy train. After attaching it to his sword, Mario led the way forward.

It wasn't long before we were in Hooktail's chamber. After a quick battle with the cricket sounding weapon and… uh… an awkward moment on Mario's part, Hooktail took off, Mario with her.

I have no idea what happened next, Koops and I were left alone in the room, but after a few moments, they crashed back in. A black heart-like object appeared on Hooktail's chest, and Koops shattered it, making Hooktail vanish in a flash of light, leaving behind a dark orb that Mario absorbed in his Nightmare hand, and Koops' father, who was put into an enchanted sleep by the power of the Crystal Star.

So, after Mario took the star, we made our way back to the village. Koops' girlfriend… kinda broke up with him, and we made our way back to the Thousand Year Door. Along the way, Mario got an email from Peach, saying she was okay, though Mario voiced my question as to how she could email us if she was trapped…

Well anyway, we found out the next Crystal Star is in Boggly Woods, and went to the Inn to eat and rest. We filled Koops in on the basics along the way, and tomorrow we'll tell him the whole story, at breakfeast.

I know I gotta get some sleep, but… I wanna record my findings, first. I borrowed some of Frankly's books and found out a few things. First, the sword… apparently, it can react with an outside energy source-namely the Crystal Stars-to basically purge the darkness from someone or something. It's a one-time shot though, so it can only happen once per Crystal Star. And apparently, it requires more than one to purge an incredible amount of darkness, so all saved up energy in the Crystal Stars are saved into the sword. I'll keep studying and watching these things… I need to find out what makes this sword tick…

For now, though, I think I'll have to hit the hay. Can't study if sleep deprivation is preventing my brain from working 100%.

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, enough in-between chapters! Monday things get SERIOUS! Boggly Woods, Flurrie, the Shadow Sirens… 'till next time!**


	13. Chapter 13: Boggly Woods

**Author's Note: Alright guys, let's all DO THIS THING!**

* * *

_**Chapter 13: Boggly Woods**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…and that about wraps it up," Goombella said.

"Okay… wow," blinked Koops. "That's… a pretty crazy story."

"It's not a story, it's true," I said as I climbed over an old fence and climbed down. The three of us were in the Rougeport sewers again, searching for a pipe leading to the Boggly Woods.

"Okay, but what I REALLY find hard to believe is that whole Nightmare thing," Koops said as he slid down as well. "I mean, I can believe it because I saw your hand… but still, knowing things like that can be anywhere or come at any time is…"

"Disturbing, yeah," Goombella finished. "Don't worry, you're not the only one who's freaked out by that. But that sword Mario has should be able to keep them-what was that?"

She suddenly turned to a corner. I followed her gaze and found nothing.

"What?" I asked her.

"I saw… something move back there," Goombella said. "But… I couldn't see exactly what it was. I think…"

She bent down near the corner.

"Yeah, it went into this," she said, backing up and nodding to a tiny hole in the wall.

"Hm," I said, peering down at the hole. I looked around and saw close to the hole a doorway blocked by iron bars. One slice with my Nightmare hand later, we were walking through the doorway into a new room, a small one that smelled a bit of forest. Shaking in a corner was a tiny creature, light grey with dark grey stripes and an antennae with a green orb on the end.

"P-please don't hurt me…" it said meekly, making itself as small as possible in its corner.

"Wha… hey, we're not gonna hurt you," I said, kneeling down next to it… er, him.

"You… you're not?" the Puni (I assumed this was what it was from Frankly's description) asked. "Wait… you're not one of those horrible X-Nauts, are you!"

"Wha… of course not!" Goombella said. "Do we LOOK like a bunch of short, smelly, stupid men?"

"Well… now that you mention it, you do smell a lot better than the X-Nauts," the Puni said in thought. "Then… who are you?"

"Mario," I introduced myself.

"Goombella," Goombella said.

"And I'm Koops," Koops said. "We're… uh, looking for the Boggly Woods so we can get a Crystal Star."

"Hey… that's exactly what the X-Nauts are looking for!" the Puni said, jumping. "My name's Punio, and I'll make a deal with you: If you get the X-Nauts out of our tree, then we'll gladly find and give you the Crystal Star, whatever that is!"

"Sounds fair," I nodded. "Count us in. Where's the pipe?"

"Oh, just right over here!" Punio said excitedly, running through another tiny hole nearby. There was a click, and the wall nearby opened into a corridor. We walked through it to see a black and white wooden pipe sticking out of the wall.

"Just jump through here and you'll be in the Boggly Woods!" Punio said. "I'll meet you there!"

With that, he jumped into the pipe and was sucked in. Following close behind, we rushed through the pipe at normal Aerosmith speeds (in hindsight, I'm surprised we didn't get any splinters…) and popped out in the middle of a grove, surrounded by black and white trees. Everything looked like it came from a children's book the way it was…

Okay, here I have to stop the story for a minute and vent my frustration. I mean, I KNOW that I know a great example for this, the story's in my head, I used to read it all the time when I was little, but… for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was! Geeze… don't you just hate it when that happens?

…right, I get it. You don't want to hear me complain, you just want my chapters, is that it? Well fine, I won't hold it against you…

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah…

"Come on!" Punio said in excitement, running ahead. "The X-Nauts are in the Great Tree! It's just ahead, follow me!"

"Right…" I said, following along with Goombella and Koops. "Hey wait a minute… why are even the plants black and white?"

"It's the woods," Goombella said simply. "Everything's black and white here… but wait… oh, I get what you're saying!"

"Thank you!" I said, throwing my arms into the air.

"Wait, what?" Koops asked, looking between the two of us. "What are you two talking about?"

"The thing that allows plants to undergo photosynthesis, and thus stay alive, is chlorophyll," I explained.

"And chlorophyll naturally gives a green pigmentation," Goombella continued.

"So… why the heck are these plants black and white?" I finished, pointing to the trees around us. "The bark, the leaves… everything. It's like they're surviving on a completely different method…"

"…I don't think we're supposed to think about it too much," Koops said, blinking.

"Yeah, but-" I started, then came to a stop when I saw in front of me three Nightmares. Well… I assumed they were Nightmares. No… I defiantly knew from just looking at them what they were, but… they didn't exactly look like the Nightmares I've seen so far. For starters, they were more humanoid than the Nightmares I've seen. They had purple skin instead of black, they had fully developed torsos, regular hands, tails that reached into shadows on the ground instead of legs, and heads that were covered with Witch's hats. I could see their mouths and their noses (well… one of the three's noses, at least), but the hats covered their eyes.

The smallest one also had the aura of deep cruelty and hatred. She wore a blue hat, had a HUGE nose, and an evil smirk. Grey hair came out the back of the hat.

The one that was about my height had an aura of someone who's just sitting by and waiting for someone to hit her, like an abused child who expects nothing more from the world except the horrible treatment she has been given. She had pink hair coming out of the red hat she was wearing.

The biggest one was… well, big, though she defiantly had that "middle child" aura going. She had yellow hair sticking out of her yellow hat, and she just seemed like the strong, silent type to me.

I wanted to call these three Nightmares, but another word came to mind from the same part that reacted to seeing that girl at the Inn and entered fits of rage occasionally:

_Mutts._

Even just looking at them started to make me angry, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why. Maybe I just don't like Nightmares after all the experiences I've had with them? But I had a feeling that wasn't the real reason…

"Alright now…" the blue hat Nightmare said to her two… sisters, I was guessing. "What's the plan again?"

"Let's see…" the red hat Nightmare said in thought. "We… wait for the Dream Keeper-sorry, Mario to come by, ambush him, take the map and return to Grodus. Do we kill him, or is that bad?"

"Bad things happen all the time," the blue hat Nightmare cackled. "But you're right about the map. So give me… wait, what's that you're holding?"

"Oh, this?" the red hat Nightmare asked, holding up a pearl necklace. "It's a pretty necklace I found on the ground! I liked how it shines in the light, so I picked it up…"

"Pheh," the blue hat Nightmare scoffed, making the motion with her head of rolling her eyes. "Well, your packrat habits are your own, I suppose. Never mind that, though! Vivian, where is the sketch of this Mario?"

"W… why are you asking me?" the red hat Nightmare-Vivian-asked. "You took it away from me b-because you said it was way too important f-for me to hold!"

"WHAT!" the blue hat Nightmare screeched. "How DARE you blame me for YOUR incompetence!"

She smacked Vivian to the ground in rage. She screamed a bit as she hit the ground.

"Wha… she can't do that to her!" I said.

_Who cares?_ A voice inside my mind asked. _They're just mutts, soulless creatures with no real purpose…_

_But no one deserves to be treated that way! _I retorted. _Not even a Nightmare!_

… The voice in my head stayed silent.

…what? Okay, I know what you're thinking, and to answer you: No. I'm NOT developing schizophrenia. I know it really seems that way, but still…

Anyway, the blue hat Nightmare picked up the necklace and shoved it under her own hat.

"Little liars like you don't deserve such fine jewelry!" she said. "Now stop groveling and help us find that sketch!"

"Y… yes sis…" Vivian said submissively as she slowly pulled herself up.

"…maybe if we walk around them quietly, we won't be caught by-" Punio started quietly, moving forward slowly.

"Hey you!" the blue hat Nightmare screeched at us.

"…well, it was a nice thought," Goombella granted as the Nightmare approached us. For a minute, I considered pulling out the sword, but she suddenly interrupted by saying:

"You four seen a sketch lying around?"

"Uh… no, sorry ma'am," I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"Then SCRAM, you worthless…" muttered she, sulking away.

"…wow, wasn't she just sunshine and lollipops?" I said sarcastically as we left the three behind.

"You… think that girl's going to be okay?" Koops asked.

"Vivian?" I asked. "Hope so… geeze, not even a Nightmare deserves THAT kind of treatment… and from her own sister, too…"

After a bit more walking, we were soon in front of a HUGE black and white tree.

"This is the Great Boggly Tree!" Punio said proudly. "Everyone's here! Including those stupid X-Nauts…"

"How do we get in?" I asked.

"We just walk through the hole in the front," Punio said simply.

"…you mean the hole that mechanical door is now covering?" I asked, pointing to said door.

"Yeah, exa-say what?" asked Punio, taken aback by the door. "Wha… this wasn't here when I left! Those X-Nauts must have installed it! C'mon, we gotta get it open!"

"No prob," I said, clenching my left hand into a fist. "Just leave it to me."

I pulled my fist back, slammed it against the door…

…then was suddenly thrown back in pain.

"Mario!" Goombella and Koops shouted as they ran to me.

"Geeze man, you okay?" Koops asked as I sat up and shook my head clear. I looked to see the door glowed for a minute before turning to normal.

"There's… something not right about that door," I said. "Like… something's built into it that prevents Nightmares from entering."

"Hm… do you think it's possible… the door's tapping into the Crystal Star's power?" Goombella suggested. "I mean, it's not really that hard to believe… If it's in the same general area, it can tap into the same kind of frequency, like a radio tuning into a station. And we've already seen how your hand reacts to the Crystal Sword… I'm betting the same sort of thing would happen with the Crystal Stars, too."

"You're probably right," I grunted as I stood.

"I thank you for stating the obvious, but we need to find a way to get past this door!" Goombella said, rolling her eyes.

"And I thought I was the one with the superiority complex…"I muttered.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing…"

"Well…" Punio said, looking the tree up and down. "Hm… oh! I got it!"

"What?" I asked.

"I remember the Elder telling me before that there's a secret entrance to the tree!" Punio said. "But… the thing is, I'm not totally sure where it is. I know it's in this general area, but… it's not a SECRET entrance for nothing. It's not like it's going to have a big, flashing neon sign that says 'SECRET ENTRANCE'."

"Wanna bet?" I retorted. "From what I've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out it did…"

"But… it's covered by an invisible… thingy," Punio said. "And to remove this thingy… we need… oh, Madame Flurrie!"

"Who?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Madame Flurrie!" Punio repeated. "She's a really great wind spirit who lives not that far from here! C'mon, I'll lead the way!"

With that, Punio scurried off to the east. The three of us followed close behind him.

* * *

_**Enter Flurrie:**_

* * *

*Pat pat pat*

"There…" I said to my beautiful reflection in the mirror as I examined my makeup. "It's perfect! Gorgeous, even!"

Floating away from the mirror, I brushed my hair as I paced the room.

"It feels so… soothing in these woods," I sighed. "No stress from the spotlight… no directors screaming at me from every direction… just me and these wonderfully ADORABLE Punies!"

I squealed at the thought of the adorable creatures! I mean, they were just so small and CUTE!

"Well… I noticed they haven't been to check up on me," I said to myself, looking out my window. "They ALWAYS come around to at least say hi. It's a bit strange… actually, what's strange is that I'm talking to myself like this. Huh."

Shaking my head, I moved over to my jewelry box and opened it up to pull out-

"OH NO!" I cried out. It was missing! Oh no, my… my…

…I was told to end this on a cliffhanger. So sorry, dears.

* * *

**Author's Note: What is it that Flurrie lost! …well, if you played the game (or even if you didn't) it should be fairly obvious. ANYWAY, next chapter the group goes on a fetch quest and, for the first time in the series, battle Nightmares that AREN'T Coron! 'Till then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	14. Chapter 14: Shadow Sirens

**Author's Note: You know, a few nights ago, I had a dream where the Legend of the Dream Keeper began to deviate from Paper Mario and the next thing I knew, Pax was in Chrono Cross. Man, I'm obsessed with that game… Okay then, now's the chapter where the group does something incredibly epic and exerting for nothing more than a useless object that it would be very easy to go in the adventure without (sound familiar, fellow RPG players? Eh? Anyone?). Well, enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 14: The Shadow Sirens**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

At the very end of the woods was a posh house sitting in a quaint little grove of trees. I pushed the doors open and walked into the house, which was completely… er, well… I suppose people with a sense of decoration would love it, but personally, I was checking out the sofas, thinking how comfy they looked and how I'd like to take a nap on one.

"Madame Flurrie?" Punio called out, looking around. "Madame Flurrie? Huh… weird, she's not here…"

"Maybe she went out for a stroll?" suggested Koops.

"…or maybe, ya know, she's in that room back there and doesn't want to come out," Goombella said, nodding to a door in the back of the main room.

"That's crazy!" Punio said, scurrying up to the door. "Madame Flurrie is always thrilled to see us! Whenever we visit, she drops whatever she's doing and gives us all a big hug! Granted, a few of us had to go to the hospital wing in the tree because of crushed spines due to her hugs… but she does it out of love!"

"Can't hurt to check," I shrugged, reaching for the doorknob. When I turned it, it refused to turn, clicking like the sound of a locked door.

"Oh!" a voice came from inside. "Please, don't come in! I can't be seen!"

"Called it," Goombella said.

"Madame Flurrie?" I asked through the door. "Is that you?"

"Oooh…" the voice said, her voice now more seductive. "Who is that sweet, masculine voice coming from?"

I took a BIG step away from the door.

"Er… name's Mario," I called out. "I'm here with my friends Goombella and Koops to help out Punio here get into his tree, which has been taken over by X-Nauts."

"What?" the voice snapped. "Someone's hurting those darling Punies? Oh… I would oh so love to help, but… I can't come out!"

"Well… why not?" I asked.

"Because I lost my… my favorite necklace!" she called.

You know how in an anime a character hears something shocking or completely unexpected and they fall over with their legs sticking up? I sure as heck felt like that's what I did.

"Are you serious?" I called out. "A NECKLACE? A whole TREE full of Punies is being invaded by an evil organization that's already locked them up and prepared to do God knows what to them to get them to talk, and you can't leave your room because you lost your NECKLACE?"

"…well, when you put it that way…" Flurrie said. "…yes. That's exactly it."

I face-palmed.

"Oh vanity, thou hath struck again…" I muttered.

"Hey," Goombella called, "if we get your necklace back for you, will you come out and help us?"

"What?" Flurrie asked. "Speak up, whoever you are! You're willing to get back my necklace?"

"Seeing as we need you and it's the only way to get you out of that room…" muttered Goombella before speaking louder: "Yeah, we're ready and willing to grab the necklace for you!"

"Oh thank you, dear!" Flurrie called out. "Please do hurry! I want to help those little Punies as soon as possible!"

"That would be a lot easier if you weren't so vain as to refuse to leave your house without your favorite accessory," I muttered under my breath as we left. "Goombella, do you even know where the necklace is?"

"Of course I do!" scoffed Goombella. "We all do!"

"…we do?" Koops asked.

"The Nightmares we saw earlier?" Goombella asked. "Remember?"

"…oh yeah!" I said. "They had a necklace on them, didn't they?"

"Mm-hm!" Goombella nodded. "So all we gotta do is find them…"

"Beat them up…" I continued.

"And take back that necklace!" Goombella and I said simultaneously.

"Well… seeing as there's gonna be a fight, I think I'll just hang out here…" Punio said nervously, scurrying to a couch.

"Yeah… I think I'll join you!" Koops said, trying to rush to him before he was stopped by me.

"Wait," I said, "what's the matter?"

"Those are Nightmares!" Koops said. "You both told me about how vicious those things are! And if what you told me is true, then the only thing that can hurt them anyway is that sword Mario has!"

"That would be the case if they were Purebloods," I said without really consciously forming the words. "Those three are just mutts and can be beaten down like any other dog."

Goombella and Koops stared at me.

"How… did you know that?" Goombella asked with a raised eyebrow.

"…not sure," I said, staring at my left hand in suspicion. Call me crazy, but I just KNEW it had something to do with that.

…okay, even I have to admit this whole foreshadowing thing is starting to get ridiculous. I mean, I might as well have a bright, flashing, neon sign that has in bright red letters the answer to all this business with my hand! Geeze, I need to learn more subtle ways to hint at things…

…ANYWAY, after shaking the feeling off, the three of us ran back through the forest. It didn't take us long at all to find the three Nightmares, who had apparently found the portrait.

"Hey…" the blue hat Nightmare said, raising an eyebrow. "Check out the 'stache on this guy! I don't need a soul to know this is a HUNK!"

"Guh! Guuuh!" the yellow hat Nightmare grunted, nodding enthusiastically.

I quite nearly vomited from hearing this, having to remind myself over and over again it was MARIO'S body they were gawking over, not mine.

"Though… he looks familier… wait…" the red hat Nightmare said in thought. "GRAH! VIVIAN, YOU IDIOT! HE PASSED RIGHT BY US, AND IF YOU HAD JUST KEPT TRACK OF THIS, WE WOULD HAVE CAUGHT HIM!"

"I'm sorry!" Vivian said, wincing away.

"OH, YOU'RE GONNA BE-"

"*Ahem*"

"WHAT?" snapped the red hat Nightmare, spinning around to face…

…us.

"You were looking for me?" I waved, holding out the Crystal Sword. The three Nightmares gave a collective hiss as they laid their eyes on it.

"Takin' that as a yes," I said, twirling the sword in my hand. "So, you three got names?"

"Hmph!" the blue hat Nightmare said, glaring at me. "Well I'll have you know, you stupid plumber, you're in for a WORLD of hurt! We are Beldam, Marilyn and Vivian, and together we are…"

"The three…" the yellow hat Nightmare-Marilyn-continued.

"…Shadow Beauties!" Vivian finished.

"…Shadow BEAUTIES?" snapped Beldam, whirling to face Vivian. "You IDIOT! It's Shadow SIRENS!"

"I-I'm sorry…" Vivian winced. "I just… you always called us your lovelies, and…"

"What lovelies?" spat Beldam. "All I see are two lovelies and one PUG-UGLY MUTT!"

I could have sworn I saw Vivian tear up from this.

"Guh?" Marilyn asked, sounding hurt.

"…I was referring to VIVIAN!" Beldam said. "Don't worry, you're still beautiful and untainted."

"Guh…" Marilyn replied with a sigh, but I thought I saw her take a pitiful glance at her sister.

"…right," Goombella said. "Geeze, these women are getting less and less scary…"

"Yeah…" Koops laughed nervously. "Are all Nightmares like this? 'Cause if so, I could handle facing more of them."

"SHUT UP!" Beldam snapped, spinning to us. "ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!"

"Why don't you shut up, you pathetic excuse for a Nightmare?" I replied, once again feeling like someone else was forming the words. I was beginning to agree with it, however, because I suddenly got angry.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!" Beldam screeched.

"You heard me," I sneered. "What, are you so deformed from the infection that you lost your hearing, Mutt?"

"WHY YOU LITTLE-"

"A Mutt and a hag… huh, and here I thought one was bad enough. Together, you might as well be a dirty dish cloth for as much as you're worth-"

"GRAH!"

I snapped out of it as Beldam charged at me with ice-covered fists.

_Oh gee, THANKS A LOT,_ I thought as I rolled out of the way, slicing up at her. She jumped back, hissing.

"I'll take Beldam," I said. "Koops, you take Vivian, and Goombella, take Marilyn."

"…you expect me to take on that behemoth?" Goombella asked. "Are you crazy? I think I'll take Beldam! You have a magic sword that could slay her in one-"

It was about then Beldam summoned a huge block of ice, shooting it at us. We, of course, managed to roll out of the way.

"…then again, the bigger they are the harder they fall," meeped Goombella as she ran at Marilyn, if anything to get distance between herself and Beldam.

Beldam screamed as she summoned another block of ice and shot it at me. I ran forward and jumped into the air, slashing through it with my Nightmare hand (destroying my glove in the process). I landed in front of her, as she jumped away from my attack.

"TRAITOR!" she snapped, seeing my hand. "_**Sutal anamuh mauq natisrof! Munimod satup diuq?**_"

"…what?" I asked. "What the HECK are you saying?"

She lunged at me, holding up her fists. I rolled out of the way and sliced at her with my sword. She ducked and punched me in the gut, blasting me back.

"GUH!" shouted Marilyn as she slammed her fist down at Goombella. She dodged, and looked back at the HUGE crater in the ground where Marilyn punched.

"Eep…" she said, getting back up and shaking her head. "Alright, you asked for it!"

Goombella ran forward, jumped up, and kicked Marilyn in the head, using it as a platform to jump off and land a few meters away.

"…Guh?" Marilyn asked, scratching her head as if she was never attacked.

"Oh COME ON!" Goombella shouted. "That was a freakin' good attack! How the heck could you not-"

Suddenly, Marilyn clapped, and lightning struck next to Goombella.

"…I change my mind, I want to trade again!" Goombella called, but saw I was caught up in a close-up battle with Beldam, fighting off her blows with my Nightmare claw.

"Okay…" Goombella muttered, turning back to Marilyn. "You can do this, Goombella. Who's the girl? You're the girl! You can take her down, even if she's a huge powerhouse with control over lightning…"

She ran at Marilyn again, jumped in the air, and headbonked Marilyn in the side. The Nightmare was buffeted, then swung at Goombella with a static-charged fist. She rolled out of the way and continued the battle.

Koops and Vivian, meanwhile, were standing in horrible awkwardness, not really knowing what to do.

"Uh… so…" Koops said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Do… you wanna punch first, or should I?" Vivian asked.

"Well… uh, hitting girls is wrong, so…" Koops said. "But… is it okay if the girl attacks first?"

"…not sure," Vivian said. "Probably not. Then again… I'm a Nightmare, so I don't think it counts."

"Maybe…" Koops said. "Just to be safe though… you strike first?"

"…sure," Vivian said. "Well… here I go…"

She made an awkward swing at Koops, who dodged it easily.

"Okay… your turn?" Vivian asked.

"My turn," Koops agreed, making an equally awkward swing at Vivian. She, of course, moved out of the way.

"Okay…" Koops said. "So… uh, what now?"

Vivian thought for a moment, then shrugged.

"Not sure," she said honestly.

"VIVIAN!" Beldam screamed as she swatted me back with a long club of ice. "ATTACK OR SO HELP ME I WILL PUNISH YOU SO HARD YOU WILL HURT FOR THE REST OF NEXT WEEK!"

Vivian winced away, looking ready to be beat any day. She turned to Koops, looking regretful.

"I'm sorry," she said, holding out her hand. "_**Singi!**_"

A blast of fire shot out of her hand toward Koops. He jumped into his shell, which was blast back from the fire. It spun on the ground for a moment before shooting at Vivian. With a shout, she was knocked back.

"_**Seicalg!**_" shouted Beldam, holding out her hand and shooting a block of Ice at me. I rolled out of the way and looked at my hand in curiosity.

"I wonder…" I muttered, holding out my palm to her. "Seicalg!"

I felt a tingle and… well, you ever had it when your head feels light and you see dark rings around your line of sight? I felt that along with a tingle on my Nightmare hand. Ice didn't shoot out, but it was covered in a nice layer of ice. I managed to form it into a fist before it totally froze into a solid ice block. It didn't hurt, but… it looked-and felt-tough.

"Okay," I grinned, "that is SO cool! Hey guys, guess what? I can use magic!"

"That's cool and all, but we're FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES HERE!" Goombella said, rolling under a punch and throwing a swiping kick at Marilyn.

"Uh… right!" I said, running at Beldam. She held up her arms in defense, glowing with darkness, but there was a loud CRACK as my frozen fist made contact, making the darkness fading away and throwing Beldam back. She got up, wiping violet blood from her mouth and glaring at me.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

Sorry for suddenly interrupting like this, but I was told this part would make more sense from either my or Koops' point of view, and seeing as Koops really doesn't want to write much… well, you get the idea.

As they were fighting, I was reluctantly firing blasts of fire at the Koopa, who kept dodging them. I shut my eyes tight and threw a punch at him, but he ducked under.

"You really don't want to fight, do you?" he asked. My eyes full of tears, I shook my head.

"But I don't want to get punished either…" I whispered, trying to catch him on fire again. He dodged, then suddenly sped up on ground level and soon was behind me, holding me by the neck. With a whimper, I shut my eyes tight, ready for whatever he had planned to hit me with, when he whispered something in my ear that I'll never forget…

"I'm going to act like I'm going to hit you in a minute," he whispered. "When I do, I want you to act like you're unconscious. That way, neither of us have to get hurt. Okay?"

Shaking, I nodded my head slightly.

"Good… now!" he whispered, thrusting his elbow to the side of my neck, but not making contact. After rolling my eyes in my head, I fell over sideways and landed on the ground, staying as still and limp as possible.

"Mario!" I heard him shout as he ran toward his friends. I couldn't believe it… he did something nice to me…

No one has ever done anything nice to me before… not since the infection…

I… I forgot how it felt, to have someone do something nice to me…

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

After knocking Vivian out (or at least, that's what I saw), Koops ran to my side after I punched Beldam again.

"Mario!" he said. "I'm here to help!"

"Oh what?" Goombella asked. "You're gonna help HIM but not ME?"

"Oh, uh…" Koops said, whirling to her. "I'm sorry, I'll-"

He stopped short when he saw her grinning, standing on the unconscious form of Marilyn.

"Nono, you're too late," she said jokingly as she hopped off and walked to my side. "The damage has been done. You'll just have to make it up to me next time we have a big battle with Nightmares."

"Ha, okay!" Koops smiled, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well Beldam…" I said, my eyes still on the hag of a Nightmare, "both of your sisters are down. Whatcha gonna do now?"

"Grr… I'M GOING TO END THIS!" she screeched, dashing at us, randomly firing ice. It was obvious she was losing it now. Koops rolled to the left, Goombella the right, and I jumped over her and sliced at her. There was a sickening sound of metal through flesh, a scream, and when I landed and turned, Beldam was standing in shock, her arm sliced off and lying on the ground. The arm faded into black smoke and was absorbed into my Nightmare hand. Again, I felt the rush through my body.

"WOO!" I said, shaking my head. "Whoa, THAT never gets old!"

"You have won this time, _**Sotsuc Muinmos**_…" she hissed, speaking that funny dark language again. "But know this! We will be back! We will not falter, we will not rest until your blood paints our skins a new crimson…"

She held out her arms to her sisters.

"_**MUVRAP SIRBENET NI SON CAF!**_" she screeched in a dark command. Dark pillars surrounded them, and with a cold wind, they were gone, the only trace of them being the necklace that I knocked out from under her hat during the battle.

"Finally!" I said in exasperation, picking the necklace up and twirling it on my wrist. "Took us long enough to get this!"

"Now we can actually get on with our quest and save the Punies!" Koops cheered.

"Yup," I nodded, looking down at my Nightmare hand. "Man… I need to start carrying spares with me. Who knows how those Punies will react to this?"

"I'm way ahead of you, Mario!" Goombella said, shaking off her helmet and pulling out a spare glove, which she tossed to me.

"You're a life saver, Goombella," I grinned as I pulled the glove on. "Thanks!"

"Yeah yeah, you can thank me with eternal servitude later, but for right now we have a vain wind spirit to please!" Goombella said.

"Right!" I agreed. "Let's go!"

With that, we rushed off toward Flurrie's house. Koops, however, stopped and turned to the spot the three had disappeared.

"…who was she?" he asked. "They told me Nightmares don't have souls… but she-"

"Hey, Koops!" I called. "C'mon, let's go!"

Koops jumped, nodded, and ran after us.

* * *

**Author's Note: A bonus surprise to whoever figures out what the language of the Nightmares is! Here's a hint: The language seems to be ancient. Well, that's all the time we have (whoa, over 3000 words! You guys lucked out this week!). 'Till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out! (PS: For those who figure it out, I wish to warn you that Google translate, as cool as it is, will… well, I didn't double-check with it, and translating it from its language to English will yield a slightly varied sentence. The basic meaning is the same, but… well, anyway, a friendly warning: Trying to input the lines into the translator will yield no results.)**


	15. Chapter 15: The Great Boggly Tree

**Author's Note: The answer to last chapter's question, you ask? It's Nital-Latin backwards! Well, on with the chapter, where we get Flurrie added to the party, watch as she uses her powers to reveal the secret entrance to the Great Boggly Tree, and view in excitement as they battle the X-Nauts! Well, no more stalling: Enjoy!**

**EDIT: Changed Grodus to Crump and removed the reference to the familier face, who will show up in next chapter.**

* * *

_**Chapter 15: Something the author does on the side as he makes a timeline of all the alternate histories of Chrono Trigger and plays Minecraft-er, I mean… **_

_**The Great Boggly Tree**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"You're back!" Punio cheered as we entered the house. "Are you okay? Those things didn't hurt you, did they?"

"A few bumps and bruises here and there, but we got the necklace," I said, holding the Pearl Necklace up.

"You… you got it back?" Flurrie asked from her room. "Oh Stars, thank you so, SO much! Just… place the necklace in front of the door and look away. I can't have you seeing me indecent!"

The absolute WORST images that could flash through my 14 year old brain shot through my mind as I threw the necklace at the foot of the door and turned away, shutting and covering my eyes. I heard the sound of the door opening, and a second later, closing. I gave it a few more seconds before looking again. We stood there waiting for a few moment.

"…okay, so…" Koops said, kicking his feet.

"How long is this gonna-" Goombella started when, suddenly, the lights dimmed, and a disco ball slowly descended from the ceiling. Pink lights shined on the walls, and seductive music began playing.

"What in the name of…" Goombella started when Flurrie threw the doors open and floated out. I say floated because… she had no legs. She was a large woman, not unattractive, wearing gold bracelets on both arms, blue earrings, purple hair and eye shadow, hot pink lipstick, and the pearl necklace we saved for her. Also located around her center was… uh… okay, how do I put this without… ya know…

Okay, here's what I'm gonna do: If you're younger than a teenager, don't read this next part. If not, then feel free to read on, but I just want you to know I don't usually write stuff like this, and don't get yourself excited over this one tiny part. Okay, ready?

Her breasts were freakin' gigantic!

Okay, there. Done. Now get your sick and twisted perverted minds out of the gutter long enough to see me overreact:

"GOOD GOD MAN!" I screamed, averting my eyes. "THIS GAME'S SUPPOSED TO BE RATED E FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!"

"Excuse me?" asked Flurrie. "I haven't the faintest idea what you might be talking about."

"Just… GAH!" I said. "Shouldn't you be wearing something to cover that or something?"

"Cover what?" Flurrie asked, honestly confused.

"Mario, what are you talking about?" Goombella asked.

"Just LOOK AT HER!" I shouted, pointing at her. Both Goombella and Koops looked at her.

"…okay, what am I looking for?" Koops asked. "Sure, she's pretty, but…"

"Well, the makeup and jewelry is kinda overkill, but other than that…" Goombella said.

"…you're serious?" I asked them. "You don't notice ANYTHING abnormal about her appearance?"

"No, should we?" asked Goombella.

"…no, I guess not," I sighed, just giving up.

"…so," Flurrie continued, looking at me dead-on, "you're the handsome little plumber who got my necklace back?"

"…well, all three of us did, really," I said cautiously. She gave a light chuckle.

"Well… what do you say I come over there and give you some sugar, sweetie?" she winked at me.

"OH NO," I said, stepping back and shaking both my head and arms. "THAT'S NOT REALLY NESSISARY, MA'AM."

"Nonsense, sugar pie!" Flurrie said before rushing at me. I don't remember much after that except a huge set of lips and the black of unconsciousness when I finally ran out of air.

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

Trust me… you didn't miss much other than us moving Mario's unconscious form to the couch.

And, you know, years of therapy…

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

When I finally came too, I found myself lying on one of her couches, my friends waiting nearby. I was going to sit up when I discovered the couches really WERE as comfy as I thought. So plush, so warm, so-

"Hey, Mario's awake!" Punio said.

Darnit.

"Alright…" I muttered, sitting up. "That was kinda-ERT!"

"Oh, I am SO sorry!" Flurrie said, wrapping me in a death-hug. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

"Mmph mm mmMM mmph!" I said.

"Excuse me?" Flurrie asked, pulling me away.

"Don't break my spine…" I repeated, anime swirls in my eyes.

"Oh… right," Flurrie said, dropping me. Koops and Goombella helped me back to my feet.

"Okay… look, we got a tree to get to," I said, shaking my head. "Enough comic relief, let's go save those Punies!"

"That's the spirit!" Punio said in excitement, leading the way forward. The four of us followed close behind, and in just a short amount of time, we were at the Great Boggly Tree.

"…So Madame Flurrie," Punio said, wrapping up the story he was telling her, "we need you to remove the invisible thingy so we can get to the secret entrance!"

"Alright, just give me some space…" Madame Flurrie said, floating up a wooden path to a higher point in the tree. She took a deep breath, and suddenly, I knew why she was called Flurrie: She could blow a freakin' HUGE gust of wind out! I mean, seriously, that was storm-worthy winds that came from her mouth!

Well, a constant burst of huge winds blew until suddenly, a section of the tree peeled off… well, not the tree, but… like an outside layer of the dimensions peeled off like paper and revealed something behind it. That thing behind it turned out to be…

"…a tiny hole with a big, flashing neon sign that says 'SECRET ENTRANCE'?" asked Punio, seeing just that on the tree.

"Called it," I said with a smug smile, my arms crossed.

"Well… here I go!" Punio said, scurrying into the little hole. Flurrie floated down next to the rest of us.

"So…" she said. "Do you know why I chose to live here?"

"…no?" I said.

"Well," Flurrie said, holding out her hand to the sky as she spoke in a dramatic voice, "you see, I was once a famous actress! However… I found that beyond the spotlights of the stage were dark, dirty duties, and-"

"Wait, famous?" I asked.

"…of course," Flurrie said, turning to me. "Why? Haven't you seen me before?"

"Well… no, but I'm not really informed of the kind of entertainment over here…" I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"I don't keep up with entertainment much either, but I really don't recognize you," Koops shook his head.

"Yup, never heard of you," Goombella said. "At least… you weren't in any of the articles I read in _Entertainment Weekly_."

"Oh, you guys have that here?" I asked. "Man, I LOVE that magazine! It's not like those horrible celebrity magazines you see in supermarkets, but actual reviews on the entertainment industry!"

"Mm-hmm!" Goombella agreed.

"Hey, where can I get a subscription to one?" Koops asked. "This magazine sounds cool!"

"Oh, I can send you one of the postcards they have for getting a subscription," Goombella said. "Just fill out some information and-"

At this point we were completely ignoring Flurrie, who was currently horribly down in the dumps because she wasn't as famous as she thought. We were interrupted in our conversation by a click, and the door opened up, Punio standing in the doorway.

"C'mon guys!" he called to us. We entered quickly and found ourselves in a very spacious room, with water flowing through, leaves on the ground making a floor… the whole place was just surreal.

"Wow…" I sighed as I looked around.

"Oh my Stars!" Goombella said. "Look! The whole tree seems to work as a Host Organism and smaller organisms thrive within it! This is so fascinating!"

The sad thing was that I actually understood what she just said there.

"Guys?" Punio called out, looking around. "Hm… where is everyone? This place is usually packed…"

"Maybe they've been captured by the X-Nauts?" Koops suggested. "They took over the tree… it would make sense."

Speaking of X-Nauts, it was right about then two walked in.

"…so then she-get this-she GAVE me the number!" one said.

"Oh-ho, SWEET man!" the other said, high-fiving the first. It was then they turned to see us there.

"…uh, doesn't that dude look kinda like the Mario we're supposed to be hunting?" the first asked.

"Yeah, it does…" the other said, scratching his head. "Man, we should go get Crump!"

"No way man!" the first said, grabbing his companion by the shoulders. "Don't you get what this means? If we take him down now, WE'LL get the credit!"

"Hey yeah… man, you're a genius!" the other said.

"That's what I keep tellin' people!" the first said, throwing his arms into the air. "Now, 'nuff talk about this crap, time to CHARGE!"

The two X-Nauts ran at us, but Flurrie picked them both up, knocked their heads together, and threw them back on the ground, a bit of a distance away.

"…on second thought, I think we SHOULD tell Crump after all," the first rushed out.

"I think you're right, man," the second agreed, and the two of them dashed through another door and locked it behind them.

"Okay… well, at least we know we're in the right place," I said. "Great job, Flurrie."

"Don't congratulate me until AFTER I whup the butt of whoever's in charge of takin' out those Punies!" Flurrie said.

"Wait…" Punio said, looking behind a statue. "Hey, everyone! Come on out, these guys are our friends!"

It was then about… I'd say 10 Punies came out. They all looked the same as Punio, save the stripes on the back.

"Wait… is this everyone?" Punio asked in confusion, looking between the puddle of Punies. "Where's the rest?"

"They're in the cell at the top of the tree!" a gruff, tiny voice said, and one of the Punies, the HUGE one (by their standards), stepped forward, glaring at Punio. "Punio, why'd you leave us alone to fend for ourselves?"

"I left to go get help!" Punio said. "And I brought it, see?"

"Psh," the other said, rolling his eyes. "The only thing I see here are a giant mushroom, a giant turtle, Madame Flurrie, and a fat plumber with… an arguably cool mustache."

"Hey!" we all said simultaneously.

"…but thanks for the compliment on the 'stache," I added at the end. This earned me a swift kick to the knees by Goombella.

"Wait… if you're the only ones that escaped that means…" Punio started.

"Yeah!" the other said. "They got your sister! She's stuck up there with the rest of them!"

"…we'll save them!" Punio said. "We just need your help."

"Ha!" the other laughed. "Me following YOU? That'll be the day! Tell you what, little man… save the Punies, and MAYBE I'll think about following you!"

"Okay then, fine!" Punio said. "We will! C'mon Mario, let's go save them!"

With that, Punio dived into a pipe that lead up the tree.

"…okay, does anyone feel like they missed an important piece of back-story?" I asked.

"Well… maybe we'll learn more about it later?" suggested Koops.

"Well whatever," I shrugged, running forward. "Right now, we have some Punies to save!"

With that, the four of us dived into the pipe after Punio.

* * *

**Author's Note: Seriously, at this point in the game, I feel like Nintendo wrote some back-story for the Punies, then accidentally burnt it during a party, so they retained all their already-made game elements for the present day without bothering to incorporate the back-story, figuring no one would care anyway. Well, next chapter will have Ms. Mowz (looked it up, turns out Keybladeboy was right), a prison beak to save the Punies, and GOOMPA! 'Till then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	16. Chapter 16: Friend Like Goompa

**Author's Note: This chapter goes out to my best friend. You know who you are, man. Well, 'nuff chatting, here we go!**

_**Chapter 16: The Punies ain't never had a friend like Goompa**_

_**Enter Pax:**_

"…and we'll be stuck here and we'll starve and that's why Punio's never coming back to save us," a Puni continued. "And another thing… uh Petuni? What's that you have there?"

"Hm?" the tiny, grey-spotted Puni with a pink orb at the end of her antennae asked, looking up. "Oh, it's a mushroom I picked for my brother."

The other Puni looked at it with a bit of disgust, as it was old and wrinkled and dry.

"Uh-" he started.

"It dried up from sitting in the cell so long," Petuni replied to his unasked question.

"Ah," the other Puni nodded. "Anywho, all complaining aside, I'm sure your brother will be here in no time. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he came out of that pipe right over there with backup right now!"

Suddenly, we came out of the pipe in the wall, shaking ourselves off from the vertical ride we just went through.

"...in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the most delicious mushroom in the world came out of that pipe right over there right now!" the Puni said hopefully, staring at the pipe.

We all stood there in silence.

"OH COME ON!" the Puni shouted, going into a corner to sulk.

"…right," I said, rubbing the back of my head. The room we were in had two cages: A blue one and a red one. The Blue one had a butt load of Punies, about 90 in all, and the red one had one wrinkled old bag of bones, who was sitting in a corner and taking a nap. Considering my track record with old people, I decided it was for the best that I didn't go anywhere near her… or talk to her… or make eye contact… or pretty much do anything at all.

"Petuni!" cried out Punio, running to his sister. "Oh, are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No bro, I'm fine!" Petuni said. "What about you, though? Where were you?"

"I was out getting some friends to help me," Punio answered, nodding to us. "Don't worry, we'll have you out in a jiffy!"

"Thanks Punio!" Petuni said. "The X-Naut who locked us in here walked into that room over there, if that helps!"

"It does, thanks!" I said with a wave. "Back in a jiff!"

"Wait… why can't you slice it down?" Koops asked.

"Are you nuts?" Goombella asked before I had time to answer. "There's not enough space! The bars would squish them into jelly!"

"Wait… what about slicing it down?" Flurrie asked. "How could you do that, anyway?"

"Long story," Goombella, Koops and I said simultaneously.

"…MAN, it feels good to say that!" Koops grinned. "I see why you guys constantly did it to me, now!"

As we stepped into the next room, we saw a mouse-like sillouette stand over the unconscious form of an X-Naut, twirling the key on one feminine paw.

"Oh, Ms. Mowz?" I asked. "How'd you get in this tree?"

The figure turned around for us to come face-to-face with…

"Backdoor!" Goompa answered with a stupid grin.

"Oh God, YOU again!" I growled. "Why can't you just leave us alone?"

"But… I wanna help the Punies!" Goompa complained. "Besides, I gotta stay with you, master! You rubbed my lamp!"

"…what lamp?" I asked.

"Uh, Mario?" Goombella asked. "Is it really a smart idea to start a conversation with-"

"Master!" Goompa said, floating into the air. "I don't think you quite realize what you got here!"

A chair suddenly pushed itself under me, forcing me to sit down.

"So why don't you just ruminate, whilst I illuminate the possibilities?" Goompa asked as he suddenly lit up like a light bulb and the entire room went dark. I felt like I was suddenly in a new open room.

"_Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves,_" sung Goompa as forty rough men with swords poofed out of nowhere and surrounded me, holding me at swordpoint.

"_Scheherezad-ie had a thousand tails,_" Goompa continued.

"_But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves_

_You got a brand of magic never fails!_"

Suddenly, out of my sleeves flew a bunch of doves, which pecked at the thieves eyes. While they were distracted, I ran away from the area as fast as I could run. I blinked, and suddenly found myself in a boxing match against Rocky.

"_You got some power in your corner now!_" Goompa sung, and I turned my head to see a generator supplying power to my corner.

"_Some heavy ammunition in your camp!_" I was sitting in a tent now with a loaded gun, Rocky toasting marshmallows over a campfire nearby.

"_You got some punch, pizzazz, yahoo and how…_" the gun in my hand popped into confetti, leaving behind brightly colored words "Punch", "Pizzazz", "Yahoo", and "Bacon" (yes, I know he said how and not bacon, but come on: It's Goompa).

"_See all you gotta do is rub that lamp!_" a little glowing lamp fell in my lap. "_And I'll say…_"

"_Mister Mario sir! What will your pleasure be?"_

I was sitting at a bar table now, Goombario polishing a glass on the other side. I blinked and tried to get up to leave, but I was shoved back down and a menu was thrown into my hands.

"_Let me take your order, jot it down…_"

I opened the menu and screamed as I jumped back, for Goompa was inside the menu and danced on the pages.

"_You ain't never had a friend like me! No no no!_"

Blinking back up, Goompa was standing as my waiter at a fancy restaurant I was suddenly in.

"_Life is your restaurant and I'm your maitre d'!_" sung he as he placed a plate of steak seasoned with a bunch of tiny Goompas in front of me.

"_C'mon whisper what it is you want…_" Goompa handed me a walkie talkie and dived behind a counter. Against my better nature, I pushed the button on it down.

"_You ain't never had a friend like me!_" Goompa suddenly jumped out of the walkie talkie and flew through the air, landing on his head and spinning.

"_Yes sir, we pride ourselves on service,_" a few gas attendants/Goompas sang as they polished the car Goompa was spinning on.

"_You're the boss! The king! The Shah!_"

I was suddenly sitting on a throne in a posh castle with a nametag that read "Manager: Mario"

"_Say what you wish, it's yours! True dish!_" the court jester sang, he obviously Goompa. "_How about a little more Baklava?_"

He opened up a pan with Baklava in it, which jumped out and swallowed me whole. When I opened my eyes again, I was in a board room, sitting down next to several Goompas in business suits, one of them leading the meeting with a PowerPoint presentation.

"_Have some of Column A!_" Goompa peeled the pie chart off the slide and threw it at me. I ducked to avoid it.

"_Try all of column B!_" A bar graph fell from the sky and squished me into the ground, which fell apart and turned to sand on a beach.

"_I'm in the mood to help you dude!_" Goompa said as he surfed a huge wave coming towards me. "_You ain't never had a friend like me!_"

"_Wah wah wah!_" a chorus of Goompas sung, dancing the can-can next to the Goompa on the surfboard, which was now a long table.

"_Oh my!_"

"_Wah wah wah!_"

"_No no!_"

"_Wah wah wah!_"

"_My my my!_"

After scatting for a short period, all the Goompas were squished together by a giant accordion.

"_Can your friends do this?_" Goompa was suddenly on stage with me in the audience, balancing a tower of random objects on his head.

"_Do your friends do that?_" Goompa was standing tip-toed at the very top of the tower.

"_Do your friends pull this out their little hat?_" yet another Goompa asked, pulling a Lion out of a very tiny hat.

"_Can your friends go poof!_" In a puff of smoke, everything was gone again.

"_Well looky here!_" Goompa was standing directly under a large, neon-red arrow pointing down at him.

"_Can your friends go Abracadabra, let 'er rip, and then make the sucker disappear?_"

At "abracadabra" a piece of paper with a picture of a lollypop appeared in my hand. At "let 'er rip" the paper ripped apart, leaving behind a real lollypop. Finally, at "disappear" the lollypop vanished in a puff of smoke.

"_So don't you sit there slack jawed, buggy eyed!_" Goompa's jaw hit the ground and his eyes were that of a fly's.

"_I'm here to answer all your midday prayers!" _Goompa, now a fly, landed on the head of a priest, with his back turned to me.

"_You got me bona fide, certified, you got a genie for your chare d'affaires!_" the priest threw his cloak off himself to reveal Goompa in genie clothes, which… burnt my eyes. Literally, my eyeballs caught on fire. As I ran to extinguish them, screaming, Goompa hosed me down, he now in a firefighter's outfit.

"_I got a powerful urge to help you out, so what you wish I really want to know!_"

Goompa had measuring tape now, which was spread all the way down the long highway we were suddenly standing on.

"_You've got a wish that's three miles long, no doubt!" _Goompa sung, pointing to the bright red notch that said "3 MILES :D".

"_So all you gotta do is rub like so, and oh!_" Goompa said, rubbing the lamp with his foot and causing an explosion of multi-colored smoke to come from it.

"_Mister Mario, sir, have a wish or two or three!_" three HUGE cards with pictures of shooting stars appeared in front of me.

"_I'm on the job, you big nabob!_" Goompa stood on top of one of the cards, which came crashing down.

"_You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend!" _With a poof, all the Punies fell down onto the disco floor we were suddenly on.

"_You ain't never had a friend, never had a friend!_" In another poof, many dancers appeared, as well as bright lights and fireworks.

"_You ain't never!_" a firework went off.

"_Had a!_" another firework, this one purple.

"_Friend…_" the place shook.

"_Like…_" The floor under us opened up.

"_Meeeeeeeeeee!_" we screamed as we fell, then landed on a trampoline, bouncing off it.

"_You aint' never had a friend like me!_"

THUMP!

I landed on my back, suddenly back in the room, with all the Punies surrounding me. Goompa was gone, and my friends were standing back, staring at me with wide eyes.

"What… WHAT LOGIC WAS THERE IN ANY OF THAT?" I cried, nearly pulling out all my hair.

"Well then…" Petuni said. "I, uh… how did we get here again?"

"PETUNI!" cried Punio. The other Punies parted to allow the two to reunite.

"Brother!" Petuni said. "I… uh… well, I got you a mushroom, but it… kinda dried out in the cell…"

"…well, it's okay," Punio said, taking the dried and nasty mushroom and eating it anyway. "See, it's… urp… it's great!"

"…why do you look like you're about to vomit?" Petuni asked.

"…GIVE ME A HUG, SISTER!" cried Punio, wrapping his little sister in a brotherly huh.

"Hey, Punio, everyone's watching!" Petuni said, but she didn't honestly seem to mind. She was, in my opinion, glad to be back with her brother.

"Well then, don't we have a tree to take back?" the old Puni asked. "I want to see those X-Thingies pay for how they made my arthritis act up in there!"

As the Punies started to make their way to the pipe, I slowly got up, shaking my head.

"Mario… what exactly did he do?" Goombella asked.

"Did that old man send you to some horrible place?" Flurrie asked.

"…yes and no," I answered. "Anyway, it's best not to dwell on it. Hopefully, it can be forgotten and we'll move on like none of this happened."

As we moved on, I tried my hardest to forget that whole event. Truthfully, I honestly wasn't sure whether I hated that series of illogical events or loved the Genie reference.

Maybe a little bit of both…

**Author's Notes: Who else stays up 'till 1 in the morning to write these things? I highly doubt very many! Well anyway, 'till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**

**PS: Yes, Ms. Mowz WILL be seen in this ark, just a little later than she was seen in the game.**


	17. Chapter 17: Down Down Down

**Author's Note: Earlier today, I tried writing out this chapter on an old typewriter I found in my shed next to a demonic deck of cards filled with the power of Hell. The good news is that the typewriter works. The bad news is that now I can't wash the bloodstains out of the keys and the screams of the tortured souls of the damned are screaming in my ears.**

…**I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Geeze, no need to be so serious, guys. I mean, I'm crazy, we all know that, but not THAT crazy. Anywho, we got a chapter to get to! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 17: Down, down, down, to the bottom of the Tree**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…wait, what?" the fat Puni-I learned recently his name was Puniper-asked, taken aback. "You… you actually saved EVERYONE?"

"Yup!" Punio said proudly. "Guess that means you'll be joining us and-"

"NO!" Puniper shouted. "That's not right! You're not supposed to have saved them all!"

"…what?" Punio asked.

"Wait… are you some kind of double-agent, working for the X-Nauts?" I asked, getting into battle position.

"Of course not!" Puniper shouted. "Why would I EVER join them? They're horrible!"

"But… wait," I said, now confused. "Why did you sound surprised then when we-"

"According to the game's script," Puniper explained, "first you're supposed to save just the Elder, then I be a jerk and refuse to join you, then the Elder yells at me, I have a character development moment… or, at least, as much of a character development moment this game would ever have… and we move through the tree, get the key for the other cage, THEN we save everyone else!"

"…okay, you basically just completely shattered the fourth wall," I said. "Isn't that, like, a nono?"

"Oh, it's only for the game, and the Stars know the fourth wall for that's almost nonexistent," the Puni Elder explained. "We didn't do anything to break the fourth wall of the story itself."

"…wait, what story?" I asked, totally confused.

"Oh, nothing, nothing…" the Elder said cryptically. I figured she had Alzheimer's like the rest of the old geezers, so I just shrugged it off.

"Anyway, you totally screwed with my screen time!" shouted Puniper. "If you think I'll join you, you're NUTS!"

"Oh come on Puniper, don't be a jerk," Petuni said, looking him in the eyes. "Please?"

"…well of course, let's go save the tree!" Puniper cried out, obviously just in it to gain Petuni's admiration. It was at that point I realized she was the only female in the entire tree, save the Elder. I thought to myself THAT was gonna cause a whole lotta problems.

"Hold on!" the Elder cried out before we left. "Before you leave… take this!"

She pulled something out of nowhere, and I winced away, prepared to face a trap door or something. However, Flurrie stepped forward and grabbed it, examining it.

"The… what is this?" she asked.

"This is the Puni Orb," the Elder explained. "So long as you hold it, the Punies will accept you as their leader and follow you wherever you go."

"…part of me wants to question why they can't just follow us normally and part of me wants to study deeper into their history and how this came into being," Goombella said, looking at the Puni Orb. "An artifact that's been programmed into the Punies' minds that whoever holds it is their leader…"

"And they kinda… stare at it in a daze," Koops added, looking at all the Punies, who were looking at the orb like it were some kind of hypnotic spiral.

"Fascinating…" Goombella muttered. I could practically see the gears in her brain working in overdrive.

"Well then… if that's all…" I said, taking and pocketing the orb. "I think… let's just go now."

I slowly backed away from the elder, still facing her to watch and see if she sprung anything on us. When she just sat there doing nothing by the time we reached the exit to the room, I spun around and dashed out, the Punies and my friends following.

"…what's his problem?" the Elder asked herself, tilting her head.

* * *

The next room had a kind of… shampoo-y scent. We were standing on one ledge, and the pipe continuing forward was on the other. Upon looking down, I saw a pool of pink liquid, bubbles coming from it. With a deep smell, I deduced that pool was where the scent was coming from.

"…okay," I said, "what… you know what? Never mind."

"What?" Koops asked.

"Nono, never mind," I shook my head. "Trust me, it'll sound silly."

"Oh c'mon, how silly could it be?" Goombella asked. "Were you going to question the logic of shampoo being pooled up inside a tree, when we all know very well that logic has about as much of a place in our adventure as a Botanist at a Psychology Convention?"

"…yes," I said, bowing my head in shame.

"…wait!" Flurrie said, looking between the two ledges. "I think I have an idea! Mario, can I see that Puni Orb?"

"Uh… sure," I said, pulling the orb out and handing it to Flurrie.

"Thanks, you handsome plumber you," she purred, making sure to stroke my hands as she took the orb from me. After a moment, I slid behind Goombella and remained there to keep distance from her. Goombella, in turn, sighed and rolled her eyes.

Anyway, Flurrie floated through the air to the other side and placed the orb into a little pillar. It fit snugly, the pillar glowed, and all the Punies suddenly rushed to the edge, staring at the pillar as if it were the most interesting and most important thing they ever seen before in their lives.

"Okay then… you three might want to step back," Flurrie said as she floated back over to our side. Heeding her advice, we all shuffled away to the far wall. After taking a tiny inhale, Flurrie breathed out a huge gust of wind, forcing all the Punies off the edge and into the shampoo puddle below. She didn't stop blowing, even after they all fell in, and after a moment, they floated back up, trapped in bubbles. Flurrie's wind blew the bubbles to the other side, and as they popped, they gathered around to continue staring at the pillar.

"Wow… smart," I said when every Puni was on the other side and I walked over to the edge.

"Thank you," Flurrie said, taking a bow as if an audience was watching.

"But now we have another problem…" Koops said, rubbing the back of his head. "How do WE get across? I mean… we can't float like you, Flurrie, and we're too heavy to float in bubbles… right?"

"Mmm… I got an idea," I said. "Koops, get into your shell."

"Uh… okay?" Koops sucked himself into his shell. Taking a few steps back, I ran forward and kicked Koops like a Soccer Ball.

The good news: I kicked him good and hard, so he shot all the way to the other ledge.

The bad news: I had TERRIBLE hand-feet coordination, so I mis-aimed and shot Koops at an angle, making him rebound off the pillar, off a few more walls, until he eventually crashed into the far wall and sprawled on his back, incredibly dizzy and shaken.

Some more good news, though: Koops wasn't too terribly injured, just disoriented, and he didn't so much as graze any of the Punies.

"Okay… that could have gone a lot better," I admitted, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly.

"Gee, you THINK?" Goombella replied.

"Okay, no need to get snappish…" I muttered. "Anyway, our turn. Go ahead and jump into my arm."

"Oh Mario, if you're falling for me, just go ahead and say it," Goombella said sarcastically.

"Ha-ha," I replied. "Seriously, I'm gonna try and jump. Super Mario and all that, ya know."

"Super MARIO, not Super MAN," Goombella said, jumping into my arms. "But, I don't think you're gonna actually listen to me, are you?"

"Nope!" I grinned, bending my legs in preparation. I ran forward, ready to jump. Goombella examined the whole scene, and as we approached the edge, her eyes widened.

"WAIT MARIO DON'T-" she started, but too late-we were already through the air. We made it halfway before we slowed to a stop in midair.

"…why aren't we going forward?" I asked.

"I was TRYING to tell you!" Goombella glared. "Your speed wasn't high enough to make the jump!"

"Oh…" I said, looking down at the shallow pool of shampoo below us. "Well… uh… cra-AAAAAAAAAAH!"

The two of us fell, but Flurrie managed to float down fast enough to catch us both in her arms and drop us off on the far ledge.

"Uh… thanks," I said, climbing out of her arms.

"Yeah," Goombella agreed, hopping out of my arms. "Maybe after all this is done you can come with us in case Mario does something stupid again?"

"Hey, I'm sorry!" I said as I took the orb and the Punies snapped out of their trance. "I thought I could make the jump!"

"Well you were wrong now, weren't you?" Goombella replied as we all moved on forward.

"Ow…" Koops finally said, getting up and rubbing his head. "Guys? Guys…? They… they totally ditched me! Those jerks!"

He stood in silence for a few moments.

"…I better catch up with those jerks," he muttered, running after us.

* * *

"Eh? Dead end?" I asked, looking around. We were in an empty room now, void of anything save a strange looking pillar in the middle of the room.

"Maybe we should put the gem into the pillar?" suggested Koops.

"Well… seeing as there's nothing else we can do…" I muttered as I stepped forward and inserted the orb into the pillar. It glowed as all the Punies gathered around it, staring at it.

WHAM!

We were all suddenly trapped beneath a metal cage.

"What the-" I said, spinning around and grabbing the bars. A familiar stinging sensation went through my Nightmare hand as I pulled it away, the bars glowing with the same energy as the Crystal Sword.

"Bwahaha!" a familiar voice laughed, and out of a nearby pipe came Crump, grinning smugly.

"So, looks like you idiots fell for my trap!" he taunted. "Now that you're all snug in that little cage, we can take our sweet time in finding that Crystal Star! Don't worry, maybe your bones will make a new historical site!"

With a laugh, he left the room.

"…I hate that man," Goombella said, kicking the iron bars of the cage.

"I don't think anyone really likes him," I said, looking the cage over. It was totally closed off, except for one locked door. Unfortunately, it locked from the outside; It was just a single slab of metal on our side.

"Crap…" I said, pounding on the door. "Maybe if I used my sword for leverage…"

That didn't help much, either; My arm wore out before the bars did.

"Geeze…" I muttered. "C'mon, there's gotta be SOMETHING we can do!"

"Need some help?" a familiar voice asked. Turning my head, I saw none other than Ms. Mowz climbing down.

"Oh, Ms. Mowz," Koops said, blushing a bit.

"Oh look, it's the floozy," Goombella said coldly.

"The… who?" Flurrie asked.

"Ms. Mowz, expert thief," Ms. Mowz said with a bow. "You look like you're in a tight situation here, and I'd hate to see a handsome plumber like you rot down here. So just take a step back and…"

As she was talking, she reached her paws into the lock and toyed with it for a bit. With a CLICK, the door opened, allowing us all to escape the cage.

"Wow, uh… thanks, Ms. Mowz," I said. "How can we thank you?"

*Kiss*

"No need, I got everything I wanted right there," Ms. Mowz winked at me, pulling away from the kiss. Afterward, she jumped to the exit to the chamber.

"Head down the pipe and you'll find what you're looking for," Ms. Mowz said. "Careful of that Crump, I don't want anything bad to happen to you, hunky slice of cheese."

With that, she left.

"Oh… so you do have a girlfriend then?" Flurrie asked with a little laugh.

"Oh HECK no!" Goombella said. "That little floozy thinks she can just jump in whenever and lay a wet one on him? She's nothing more than a little…"

She slowed to a stop when she saw everyone stare at her.

"Er…" she cleared her throat. "Never mind, continue."

"…anyway, no, I'm not a Furry," I replied to Flurrie's question.

"What's a Furry?" Koops asked.

"Okay," I said, raising my hands and walking toward the pipe, "I am NOT getting into that conversation."

With matching shrugs, Flurrie and Koops followed, as did most of the Puni crowd.

"You liiiiiike him," Petuni giggled.

"I-I do not!" Goombella blushed. "Come on, we gotta get going…"

With that, she entered the pipe along with the rest of them.

* * *

After going down an elevator powered by all the Punies standing on a platform (to this day I have no idea how it can measure every individual Puni, as it didn't track any weight but theirs), we found ourselves in a HUGE room, surrounded by statues of Punies staring at us. In the very middle was a Pillar.

"This must be it," I said, insterting the Orb into it. Everything began to shake and flash, and suddenly, the Crystal Star popped out of the head of the main Puni.

"Sweet!" I said, running forward to grab it. Suddenly, something slammed past me, knocking me to the ground. When I looked up, I saw Crump grab the Crystal Star.

"Hey!" I said as I got up. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Stealing the Crystal Star, of course," Crump said, running to a nearby pipe.

"Why you little-" began Goombella.

"I'd love to stay and chat," Crump said, pulling out a remote, "but I think I'd rather introduce you to something I call a REMOTE CONTROL TIME BOMB!"

With that, he pushed the button, and Goompa ran in and placed down a timer that registered 300 seconds before running off again. Laughing, Crump ran out.

"…OH COME ON!" I shouted, shaking my fist at the air.

"Mario, we gotta go!" Koops said, pulling out the orb and running to the pipe, tossing the orb to me as he made his way past.

"Right!" I nodded. "Punies, run as fast as those tiny legs of yours can carry you!"

With that, we all made our way out of the pipe and toward the top of the tree, trying to beat the clock that seemed to follow us wherever we went.

* * *

**Author's Note: Next chapter is the boss battle with Crump! Exciting, no? Well, I won't hang you with this Cliffhanger any longer than needed. 'Till Friday, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	18. Chapter 18: Magnus von Grapple

**Author's Note: Sorry for the late update, procrastination struck again. So anyway… yeah, I got nothin'. Man, I wanna go to Sea World again. Underwater life is SO cool… well, anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 18: Magnus von Grapple (What is it with evil dudes and German names?)**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

We still had about 190 seconds on the clock when we reached the entrance room of the tree. We skidded to a stop to see Crump held up by the Puni Elder.

"Outta the way, old hag!" Crump said. "I already got what I came here for, so just move it so I can-"

"OLD HAG?" screamed the Puni Elder, glaring Crump down. "What kind of respect is that? Didn't your mother ever teach you to respect your elders? You're nothing more than a big bully is what you are! You just put others down to make yourself feel high and mighty, and you'd even go as far as to disrespect your own elders?"

As she said this, Crump seemed to shrink away from her. It was actually a pretty hilarious sight.

"This is it for you, bully!" the Elder said. "Elder powers… ACTIVATE!"

She jumped into the air, and time seemed to slow down as she flew through the air toward Crump, feet first…

*Crick*

"OH!" she suddenly fell to the ground, curled up in pain. "What a time for my aching back to act up! Curse you, old age!"

"Ha!" Crump said, walking around her. "So long, sucker!"

"Hold it, slime ball!" Goombella shouted, stepping forward into battle position next to me. "You're not going anywhere!"

"Grah!" Crump said, looking between the four of us (the Punies ran to the background to avoid the confrontation). "Fine, you wanna play hard ball? We'll play hard ball! First though, I better shut off this timer…"

He pushed the button on the remote, and the timer near us stopped on 178 seconds.

"New High Score!" Goompa said, writing our time down as #3 on a top ten list of best times.

"…WOULD YOU GET OUT OF HERE?" I snapped.

"Fine, but you're out of the will now!" Goompa said, sticking his tongue out at me as he left.

"…right," Crump said with a blink. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah."

He pushed another button on the remote, and suddenly, a cube with a dome over the top fell from the ceiling. Crump then opened the hatch, jumped in, and closed it again, glaring down at us as he messed with stuff under the dome.

"…a box?" Flurrie asked. "You think a box is going to keep us from hurting you?"

Crump's mouth moved, but we couldn't hear him.

"…what?" Koops called out, cupping his hand over his ear. With a sigh, Crump pushed a button.

"I said it's not just ANY box!" Crump repeated, his voice being projected by speakers on the side of the box. With another flip of a switch, the box jumped into the air and, in a very transformer-y fashion, the box changed into a giant fighting robot with an X on its chest plate.

"Meet Magnus von Grapple, my greatest weapon!" Crump laughed.

"Whoa, now THAT'S more than meets the eye!" Koops said in alarm. Suddenly, a tomato hit him in the face.

"Boo!" a random voice said from nowhere.

"What?" Koops asked, wiping the Tomato off his face. "What's with the boo?"

"Uh… I'll explain it later," I sighed, shaking my head. Getting into battle position, I glared up at the giant robot.

"Alright you over-confident pile of slime," I said, "you invaded the tree, completely took over, enslaved the Punies, and basically destroyed everything just to get your own greedy goals! For that, you're goin' DOWN!"

I ran forward, slamming my Nightmare fist at him…

…then suddenly was blasted back in pain. I looked up at the glowing metal of the robot.

"Oh of course," I sighed, jumping back to my feet. "That whole 'metal conducts the power of the Crystal Stars' thing is REALLY starting to get on my nerves."

Magnus von Grapple held out a fist and suddenly shot it out at us like a rocket.

"Holy crap, GET DOWN!" I dived down, as did my friends. The fist passed right by us and through the ground, crashing through the tree.

* * *

_**Enter Edwin:**_

* * *

"And… there!" I said, stepping away from the box that had the Cold Fusion in it. "I finally did it! I finally created Cold Fusion! And with it in this virtually indestructible box of my own creation, the only possible way it can be destroyed is if, say… a giant metal rocket-powered fist suddenly shot through here and smashed it through the other wall! And, come on, this is deep inside a giant tree… what's the chanses that'll actually-"

Suddenly, a giant metal rocket-powered fist shot through a wall, hit the box, and smashed it through the other wall. The sudden intense G-Force put on the box combined with the hitting the far wall was too much for the box: It shattered on contact, destroying the Cold Fusion.

"…"

I dropped to my knees, sobbing.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed to the air.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…did anyone else hear-" Flurrie started.

"Move!" shouted Goombella, forcing Flurrie to the side. The robot's foot slammed into the spot she was standing a moment before.

"Gwa ha ha!" Crump laughed, shooting off his other fist at us, which we dodged. "Give up! You're useless against the awesome might of my machine!"

_Okay,_ I thought, looking the robot up and down, _my Nightmare hand's out, my sword's pretty much useless against the metal… the only thing that I can even touch is the glass dome, and I can't even reach that… unless…_

"Goombella, Koops, I need you two to give a distraction!" I told them.

"What?" Koops asked, taken aback. "B-but what would we even do to-"

"Got it!" Goombella nodded. "Koops, follow my lead!"

"Uh… okay?" Koops said, following behind Goombella.

"Hey, fatty!" Goombella cried up when they were behind the robot. "You're so fat, when you sit around the house, you sit AROUND the house!"

"WHAT?" Crump cried, turning to face us.

"You're so stupid," Goombella continued, "it takes you two hours to watch 60 Minutes!"

"Why you little…" Crump growled.

"Now you do one," Goombella encouraged. "That's all I got."

"Uh… you… you're so poor, that one day I saw you kicking a can down the street!" Koops said. "When I asked you what you were doing, you replied 'moving'!"

"Okay, that's actually a pretty good one," Goombella smirked. "If I had hands, I would so knuckle touch you right now."

"Really?" Koops asked, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Well… thanks, Goombella! That means-"

"GRAH!"

The robot's fist returned, and Crump shot it at them.

"AH!" The two of them rolled in separate directions, and both had Crump's full attention.

"Wow, she's good…" I muttered. "Anyway, Flurrie, I need you to hold me and-"

"Any day, Mario!" Flurrie said, wrapping me in a hug from behind.

"…well," I said, "that's all well and good and all, but… I wasn't finished. I need you to float me up to the dome on top of that robot."

"Oh… right," Flurrie sighed, floating me up. Crump was totally focused on Goombella and Koops, so he didn't even notice us until he heard the THUMP of me landing on the glass.

"Huh?" Crump turned up toward me.

"Hi," I waved before smashing through the glass with my Nightmare hand. I could tell it was supposed to be a thick glass, but my Nightmare hand shattered it easily. Screaming, Crump jumped back, but there wasn't much room to move around in that dome at all. He pulled up the Crystal Star and turned to (I guess) use its powers against me, but I just kicked it out of his hand, causing it to fall to the ground.

"Grah, get OUT!" Crump said, kicking me in the chest, causing me to fall out of the dome and fall flat on the ground.

"Oh no… the Crystal-" Crump started, whirling around.

"Lookin' for that?" Goombella asked, nodding to Koops, who was holding the Crystal Star.

"Mario, CATCH!" Koops shouted, throwing the Crystal Star at me.

"NO!" the robot reached forward to grab the Crystal Star, so I jumped on it, threw myself into the air, and slashed at the Crystal Star, which was still airborne. With a shattering sound and a blast of light, the Crystal Star was absorbed into the sword.

"Okay… now a quick test…" I muttered, touching the metal robot with my Nightmare hand. It didn't sting in the least.

"Okay, we're good to go now!" I grinned, stepping back.

"TAKE THIS YOU LITTLE-" Crump said as the robot swung a punch at me. I caught it in my Nightmare hand, stopping it short.

"Wha-" Crump started, then let out a squeal of disbelief as I crushed the fist as easily as I would an aluminum can.

"I've been waiting this whole battle to do that!" I grinned as I ripped the arm right out of the robot's body.

"MAGNUS!" cried out Crump. "Oh baby, are you okay?"

"Yeah… I don't think so," I said, punching through the torso of the robot. "Say, what's this do?"

"NO, DON'T TOUCH THOSE!" Crump said. "THAT SWITCH IS THE SELF-DESTRUCT SWITCH!"

"…why does EVERY bad guy have a self-destruct something or other in their machines at some point?" I asked, reaching for the switch.

"Wait, wrong switch," Crump said. "I ment the one next to it."

"Oh, this one?" I asked, hovering my hand over the switch to the right of it.

"Yeah, THAT'S THE SWITCH YOU DON'T PULL!" Crump cried out.

"Good to know," I said as I pulled it and ran back. "TAKE COVER!"

Crump looked down at his beeping and shaking robot.

"…crud," he said simply.

BOOM!

In a sudden blast, Crump was blasted right out of the tree and into the sky. Chunks of the robot fell around us, but thankfully, no one (other than Crump) was hurt.

"…uh, guys?" an X-Naut, who was watching the whole thing, said to his companions, who were standing right by him, "Crump just-"

"Yeah, I saw," another X-Naut agreed. "…should we, like… run now?"

"…yeah, that's smart," the first X-Naut nodded. With that, the whole lot of them ran from the tree, screaming.

"…WE WON!" cried Punio, and all the Punies gave a cheer as they danced around.

"Boo-yeah!" I said, pumping my first. "Celebratory moon-AUGH!"

"We won, Mario!" Flurrie said, wrapping me in a death-hug. "Oh, you were so brave!"

"Crushing… spine…" I gasped.

"Oh, sorry hun," Flurrie said, dropping me to the ground.

"It's fine… I think…" I moaned, standing up and rubbing my back.

"Nice job, Mario!" Koops said, patting my shoulder.

"Yeah, but you and Goombella really pulled through with that whole insulting thing," I nodded. "Sweet job, by the way, Goombella."

"Yeah, well… you know," Goombella shrugged. "Least I coulda done… you know… you looked kinda cool there when-"

"So you saved us, did you, Marty-O?" the Elder asked, cutting Goombella off. Goombella sighed as she stepped back, turning so no one could see a small blush forming.

"Yup," I nodded. "And I gotta say… you turned out better than I thought. You're not like all the other old farts I met, you're really co-"

"GET AWAY, STUPID MUGGER!" the Elder shouted, pulling out a tazer and zapping me with it.

"…and my faith in the senility of old people is restored," I said with a shake. "Hey, does anyone else taste metal? I see blue! This feels familiar-unconscious."

With that, I collapsed, being knocked out from the zap.

* * *

**Author's Note: Horray, it's like Watt all over again! I wonder what happened to him/her after the adventure was over, anyway… so, anyway, next week is the in-between chapters, then we go to the next area! 'Till then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	19. Chapter 19: Three Sides, Ark 2

**Author's Note: And now for the in-between week. Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 19: Three Sides, Ark 2**_

* * *

_**Enter Peach:**_

* * *

I yawned, leaning back in my bed.

"Well… it's official," I said, examining my nails. "I'm officially bored."

I stepped up out of the bed and began pacing.

"…I wish I could dance with Mario again," I sighed, leaning against a wall. "Oh… the way he used to lead me in the ballroom… the music that played in our ears as I leaned against him in dance…"

I smiled, closing my eyes and remembering my dances with Mario. My heart skipped a beat when I looked into his imaginary eyes. With a giggle, I leaned forward into him…

My imagination was cut short when, suddenly, the door opened up, leading down the hall back to TEC's room.

"Oh… looks like TEC wants to talk," I said to myself, walking down the hall. "Wonder what he wants today… and I wonder… I wonder why I keep talking to myself?"

I shrugged as I stepped into the room with the huge computer.

"HELLO, PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said. "WOULD YOU LIKE TO DANCE?"

"Wait, what?" I asked, taken aback. "Where did that come from?"

"UPON OBSERVING YOU EARLIER," TEC explained, "I WITNESSED YOU EXPRESSING GREIF OVER THE FACT-"

"You were _eavesdropping_?" I interrupted, feeling REALLY ticked now.

"I AM SORRY, PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said. "SIR GRODUS HAS SPECIFIED THAT YOU ARE TO BE MONITORED AT ALL TIMES."

"Hmph," I crossed my arms and turned the other way. So what if that pompous jerk told him to spy on me? That didn't make it right. "Well… whatever, how would I even be able to dance with you anyway? You're a computer."

"I HAVE PLANNED ACCORDINGLY," TEC promised. The lights dimmed, and I turned around to see a holographic projection of myself standing in front of me.

"…you're going to dance with me using a hologram… of me?" I asked TEC.

"YES," TEC said simply.

"Well… as stalker-ish as this seems, you creating a digital me, I guess I could try," I shrugged. "Still… it's going to be weird, dancing with myself…"

Suddenly, a new image flashed on TEC's screen. It looked like a record, ready to play. On the top was "Dancin' With Myself" and on the bottom was "Generation X". The record began spinning, and a very upbeat song started to play. Less than a minute in, a man's voice started singing, and… well, I have to admit, it sounded hot.

* * *

_**Enter The Author:**_

* * *

"Heh… gay," my friend taunted.

"Hey!" I interjected. "I didn't say I personally think Billy Idol sounds hot, I'm just trying to write it as I would think a female Peach's age and personality would see it as!"

"…right," my friend said, rolling his eyes and walking away. "You just keep on telling yourself that."

Grumbling, I turned back to my story, which I put off writing for so long because of Minecraft. It wasn't my fault, really, just… I was working on building an island floating in the sky, and that takes a lot of time, creating all the materials to get all the way up and-

…crap, I'm getting off-topic again. Well, better get back to writing before I collapse from sleep deprivation… God, I really need to discipline myself more, I'm letting myself procrastinate more and more…

* * *

_**Enter Peach:**_

* * *

After this brief moment of fourth-wall shattering, I grabbed the hands of my holographic self. Surprisingly, I could actually touch her instead of going straight through.

"Well… this isn't the normal music I dance to, but let's give it a shot," I said and started dancing with her. I started off with my usual slow dance, but it was so off from the music I decided to speed it up a tiny bit. That worked a little bit better, but not much. My style was just not matching with the music.

"…okay, screw it," I finally said, pulling away and letting the music carry me. That worked a lot better, and I was soon jumping around all over the room, honestly enjoying myself. It wasn't anything I've ever tried before, but it was… well, it was a lot of fun (though REALLY hard to pull off in high-heels).

My holographic companion even seemed to agree with me and started in the same fashion I did, only… well, she took it a step further. Where I jumped in the air briefly, she did a complete back flip. She did handstands, flips… you get the idea. She just got REALLY into it.

Eventually, the song died down, and so did the hologram. The lights turned back on, and I stood back in front of TEC, panting a bit and pushing my hair out of my face.

"THANK YOU, PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said. "THAT WAS VERY FUN."

There was a pause.

"…FUN?" he asked himself. "THIS… THIS IS SOMETHING I HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED BEFORE… STRANGE…"

"Uh… TEC?" I asked.

"PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said, "I'M AFRIAD I MUST HAVE SOME TIME TO ANALYZE THIS INFORMATION. BUT, LOOK AT ME STILL TALKING WHEN THERE'S SCIENCE TO DO; IF YOU WISH TO SEND AN EMAIL, YOU MAY DO SO NOW."

I blinked, almost forgetting about the email.

"Uh… right, thanks," I nodded, stepping forward and typing up my email. With a press of a button, the email was sent.

"YOUR MESSAGE WAS SENT," TEC said. "YOU MAY RETURN TO YOUR ROOM."

I started to the door, but paused and turned back with a smirk.

"You're a weeeeird computer, TEC," I teased.

"NO, I AM A PERFECT COMPUTER," TEC argued. I actually let out a tiny giggle.

"Goodnight, TEC," I said, stepping out to my room.

"GOODNIGHT, PRINCESS PEACH…" TEC said.

* * *

_**Enter Bowser:**_

* * *

Welp, when Kammy told me Peach was seen at this grassy place, you know that's where I went first! Ha, I marched all the way across that grass and hills to the town at the end! A few insects with Xs on them tried to stop me, but I stomped them down! What, you doubted I could? I'm Bowser, I can take down anyone and everyone! And don't even get me STARTED with Mario, I only let him win! Don't you ever forget that!

The town cowered from me like they should have, and I laughed like this: "GWA HA HA HA!" They all screamed and ran! Oh, I have so much fun doing that! I saw Peach standing in a window, smiling that little smile of hers. I walked up to her and gave her all my best pickup lines, but she didn't say anything. She didn't even blink! I figured she was just so happy to see me, she was speechless. So you know what I did then? I took her in my arms and carried her all the way back to my castle! There we had dinner together and she kissed me on my nose and-

GRAH, THIS IS SO STUPID! They told me if I want to keep writing, I'll have to tell the TRUTH! Ugg, this is SO unfair! The truth sucks, I like my version better! I mean, who wants to know that Peach turned out to be a poster and a Koopa peeled her off his window and ran away? Who wants to know that later I went back to my ship and cried to myself because I couldn't be with the real Peach and I felt like everyone was laughing at me? NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR IT, THAT'S WHO!

* * *

(The previous paper was found crumpled up in a nearby garbage can, splattered with tears. Almost makes you feel sorry for the jerk, don't it?)

* * *

_**Enter Nozan:**_

* * *

"Excuse me, sir?" Tom asked. "I have a message for-"

"I don't like this…" I muttered, looking at the screens.

"Huh?" Tom asked, looking up at me. "What don't you like?"

"What I don't like is… wait, did you bring the-" I started.

"Coffee!" Tom said, holding it up.

"Oh, thanks," I said, taking it and sipping, rubbing my eyes. I was required to take a break earlier, as you all saw, but other than that, I stayed awake and staring at the screens more than anything else.

"Anyway… you were saying?" Tom asked.

"Oh yeah, yeah…" I muttered, pointing back at an instant replay of the Dream Keeper's last battle. "Look there, Tom. What do you see?"

Tom stared at the battle, silent as he watched.

"I see… the Dream Keeper crushing the robot like it's a soda can," Tom said.

"Exactly," I said. "He's relying on that… that THING way too much. And… I'm starting to fear it's spreading."

"Spreading?" Tom asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" I sighed. "The hand makes up one-fourth of the arm, right?"

"Really?" Tom asked, measuring his arm with his own hand.

"Well, his anyway," I replied. "Anyway, long math problem short, the hand makes up about 3.9% of the body. So, you'd expect the Dream Keeper to have that much Nightmare energy in him, right?"

"Well… yeah, I gue-" started Tom.

"Wrong," I said, pointing to a gauge on the bottom of the screen. "Read to me what that chart says."

Tom looked at the gauge, then his eyes widened.

"D-does that say 6%?" he asked.

"5.85 actually, but you get my point," I replied, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Every time he uses it, it spreads a little bit. Thank goodness the infection lowers some when he rests, or takes time away from using the powers. If he keeps this up… well, let's just hope he doesn't get to 10%."

"Wh-what happens then?" Tom stuttered.

"Then he'll be able to enter Nightmare Rage," I replied, shaking a bit. "You do NOT want to be near a Nightmare when they enter that Rage. If the Dream Keeper were to enter it… let's just say it wouldn't be pretty."

"Well… I guess all we can do is hope he doesn't keep using it," Tom said nervously.

"My hopes aren't high, but maybe he'll realize the dangers soon enough," I sighed. "Anyway Tom, you said a minute ago you had a message for me?"

"Huh?" Tom asked. "…oh yeah! Merlin told me that if you didn't take at least ten hours off to get something to eat and some proper sleep, he'd introduce you to someone named… uh… Goompa, I think?"

"Oh God, not THAT…" I muttered. "…fine. Tom, you're in charge again."

"Yay!" Tom said, jumping into the seat after I slid off. "You can count on me, sir!"

With a sigh, I shuffled out, heading to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich before going to my room to sleep. Throughout the entire time though, I couldn't stop thinking about that Nightmare percentage…

**Author's Note: I have NO idea if that's an accurate percentage of the body, I just measured the length of all my body parts (legs, torso, arms, neck and head) with my hands and did the math to get a percentage. Fun fact: My torso is the same length as my upper leg. Anywho, we have some foreshadowing with the Nightmare Hand! 'Till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	20. Chapter 20: Mafias in a Kid's Game?

**Author's Note: Well, time to check in on that Thousand Year Door again! And… wait a minute, we're actually going to have something worthy to the plot in this chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 20: Mafias in a kid's game?**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Thank you, everyone!" Punio said as we stood outside the tree. "You saved us all from what would have been certain doom! Is there anything we can do to thank you?"

"Yeah," I said, rubbing my side, "keep that old lady and her tazers away from me."

"Well you asked for it for being so disrespectful!" the Puni Elder said, turning her back to us. "Ah, forget you. I'm going to go drink my Prune Juice…"

With more angry mutterings, she turned her back to us and entered the tree, slamming the door behind her as she did so.

"…right," I said. "Anyway, I hope everything turns out well for you guys!"

I said this with a wave as I started away from the tree.

"We will!" Punio called out. "We'll even find a way to make peace with the Jabbies, the creatures that were at war with us that the Author forgot to mention until this very moment!"

"What?"

"Nothing, bye!"

Soon, the Punies were out of earshot.

"Well, looks like another Crystal Star down," Goombella said.

"So wait… what is it about these Crystal Stars that you want to find out about?" Flurrie asked.

"Oh, you see-wait," I said, spinning around. "Are you going to come with us?"

"Well… of course!" Flurrie said. "As long as there's evil out there, I want to be there to stop it! I want to travel with you and make the world a safer place not just for the Punies, but for every creature that cannot protect itself!"

"…wow," Koops blinked. "Flurrie, that's a very noble reason to-"

"And plus," Flurrie added, scooting uncomfortably close to me, "I'd just LOVE to get to know you better, Mario."

"Er… okay then," I said, scooting away. "Right. Well anyway, we have a bit of walking until we get to the Door, might as well share with you what's going on. You see-"

I was interrupted by the ringing tune of my Mailbox SP.

"Oh, I got mail," I said, pulling it out and flipping it open.

"Who's it from?" Flurrie asked.

"Oh, Princess Peach," I said, reading over the Email.

"Oh, so you're taken then?" Flurrie asked, crossing her arms. "Mario, you bad boy! How could you lead me like that!"

"It wasn't like-WAIT, WHAT?" I asked, spinning around to face her. "Oh-ho, no. You got it all wrong."

"So you're… single?" Flurrie asked, puckering her lips.

"…I plead the Fifth," I said, turning back to the Email. "Anyway, listen to this:"

"Mario,

The X-Nauts still haven't caused me any harm. I'm safe, if a bit bored. Please stay safe, I don't want any harm to come to you. I wait for the day we can dance together at the Castle again.

-Peach"

"Sure sounds like a girlfriend to me," Flurrie said.

"Well she's… I just don't… gah, let's just go," I said, shoving the Mailbox SP back into my pocket. I honestly held no romantic interest toward the Princess, but I had no idea what kind of situations I'd put Mario in if I said I had no girlfriend. Heck, the only girlfriend I ever did have-

No. No, I can't think about her. No, please… God, let the memories pass… I don't want this pain, make it stop, just go-

"Hey, Mario?"

I looked up at my friends grouped around me, looking at me in concern.

"You okay?" Goombella asked in concern.

"Y… yeah, just let me…" I said, standing up and clenching my chest. "Go on, I'll be with you in a minute."

"Are you sure?" Koops asked. "Because we can wait and-"

"Nono, seriously, I'm fine," I shrugged off. "Go, I'll be there."

With a shrug, Koops moved on, casting a worried glance back at me. Flurrie did the same. As I healed back, I noticed Goombella stayed back with me.

"I thought-" I started.

"Since when do I ever really listen to what you say?" Goombella asked.

"Well in the tree-" I started.

"And you saw what happened there, I'm not making the same mistake twice," Goombella teased. This actually got me to smirk a bit.

"Well I got you smiling, that's a start," Goombella smiled back.

"Yeah… thanks," I said, rubbing the back of my head. I started to run to catch up with them, but Goombella stopped me with a question.

"Er… Mario?" she asked. "This… may sound silly, but… I want you to know I'm just asking out of pure curiosity, no other reason! If you think there's another reason, you'd be wrong, and-"

"Goombella," I interrupted. "What is it?"

"Well… DO you have a girlfriend?" she asked me. I wasn't sure what to tell her for a minute, but I finally decided she could be trusted.

"…promise not to tell anyone?" I asked.

"Oh, of course!" Goombella agreed. "My lips are sealed."

"Alright," I said. "No, I'm single."

"Oh," Goombella said, turning back ahead. "Well then… thank you for sharing that with me. Why keep it a secret though?"

"Keeps people like Flurrie away," I said, nodding to said Wind Spirit.

"…okay, good point," Goombella snickered.

"C'mon, we can't leave them waiting," I said, jogging to catch up to my other friends. "We have a story to tell and a Thousand Year Door to visit."

* * *

The flash faded, and I looked over the glowing map, making the sword in my hand vanish.

"Alright… so now that map shows the location of the next Crystal Star, right?" Flurrie asked, wanting confermation to the story we just told her.

"Usually, yeah," I said. "But…"

"What?" Koops asked, looking over my shoulder at the map. "Holy Crud! I didn't even know that was possible!"

"What's possible?" Flurrie asked, also looking over my shoulder. "Wow!"

"What? Oh c'mon guys, that's just not fair!" Goombella glared up at us. "Some of us can't easily look over the shoulders of Mario!"

"Long story short… the Crystal Star's in the middle of the sky," I said. Goombella blinked.

"…you're kidding," she said. I, in turn, showed her the map, which showed exactly what I told her.

"…huh," Goombella said. "Well, I'm sure Professor Frankly can provide us with a plausible answer."

* * *

"It's in a city that floats in the sky!" Frankly said, looking up from the map. An awkward silence followed.

"…plausible answer, huh?" I asked.

"Oh shut up," Goombella grumbled, then clearer to Frankly: "Uh, Professor? What do you mean by that? A floating city?"

"Yes," Frankly nodded. "See, it's built on this giant plate that floats above the clouds. VERY posh, and home to many fights."

"Oh," I said. "Well… at least that has SOME logic in it. So, I'm just taking a wild guess here and saying there's no pipe leading to it, seeing as it's up in the air?"

"You'd assume correctly," Frankly nodded. "The only way to get a ticket onto the blimp that flies up there is with certain… connections."

"…connections?" Koops asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means we have to deal with a mafia," I groaned, face-palming. "…wait a second, what are Mafias doing here?"

"It's Rougeport," Goombella said, rolling her eyes. "I thought you knew that."

"Well yeah, but…" I started, then stopped myself before I mentioned the game itself and its rating. "…never mind. So, where's the Don?"

"He's in Western Rougeport," Frankly said, "but you don't just go up to him and start a chat! You have to know the password to even step foot in his door! Not to mention-"

"Alright, we'll figure it out," I interrupted, leaving the house with my friends.

"…I keep feeling like he's getting more and more hostile toward me," Frankly said to himself. "Maybe he's had a traumatic experience with old people in his early childhood…"

Early? No. Trauma? HECK YES.

…sorry, had to add that there. Moving on…

* * *

We walked through the hall to the desk of a very important looking Pianta (a creature from Super Mario Sunshine, big, green or yellow, in his case yellow, and with a tiny palm tree growing out of the head).

"Wha… who're you?" he asked in an Italian accent. "How'd you get in here?"

"Oh, it wasn't too difficult," I shrugged. "We just found the password, gave it to the Bow, and walked up."

"The process of getting the password just had so little room to add funny things, the author skipped the whole thing," Flurrie said.

"Seriously, what do you guys keep talking about some Au-" I started.

"Bah, never mind!" the Don said. "What do you want? I'm in a foul mood, so make it snappy or I'll have to lay a hurtin' on you!"

"Yeah, uh… we just wanted tickets to the next flight on the blimp to the floating city," I said.

"What?" the Don scoffed. "You expect me to just GIVE you four prime tickets to Glitzville?"

"Well… kinda," I shrugged.

"B-but we can come back later, if now's not a good time!" Koops said.

"Nono, I like your guts kid," the Don smirked. "…tell ya what. I'll trade ya. A favor for a favor?"

"Depends," I said. "Does this favor have to do with cutting off Yoshi heads and putting them into the beds of your enemies?"

"…GOODNESS, NO!" the Don said. "We may be a Mafia, but we're not savages!"

"I'm starting to see why this game kept its E rating…" I muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. So, what's the favor?"

"Hmph…" the Don turned his back on us. "My darling daughter Francesca ran off with one of my… goons, Frankie. I need you to track 'em down and take them back here, see? If ya can't do that, just tell me where they are and I'll send my boys. Easy, right? Hardly have to break a sweat."

"Well… fine, I guess," I shrugged. "We'll be back before you know it!"

"Oh, you better," the Don growled as we left. "Or your luck is going to turn horrible…"

"…like our luck is any good now?" Goombella added when we were out of earshot.

* * *

"Uh… hey there," I said to the only Piantas in the whole town, who happened to be standing on the docks, waiting for a boat.

"Oh, hello," the female one said. "Listen, we're kind of waiting for a boat that should be showing up any minute, so could you-"

"Francisca, right?" I asked. "And Frankie?"

I found myself lifted into the air by a huge hand.

"How'd you know our names?" Frankie asked in an Italian accent.

"Choking… me…" I gasped.

"Frankie, let 'im go!" Francisca said, grabbing Frankie's arm. "They don't mean nothin' by it!"

"Listen to her, LISTEN TO HER!" I choked out.

"Grah… fine," Frankie said, dropping me.

"Phew… thanks…" I muttered, standing up and rubbing my neck.

"But yeah… how DO you know our names?" Francisca asked.

"Well… your dad kinda asked us to find you," I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"WHAT?" Francisca shouted. "Why that… oh, how could he?"

"Uh…" I started.

"Ya see… Francisca and I are in love," Frankie said. "We wanted to run off together so we could be together, but… Francisca, if your father's come to letting outsiders get us, maybe we should turn back and-"

"Frankie, don't you love me?" Francisca asked.

"Of course I do, my little puddin' pop!" Frankie said.

"Then let's go!" Francisca said. "I don't care what daddy says! The harder you try to put out the flames of love, the hotter they burn!"

"Pure poetry…" Flurrie whispered behind me.

"Oh please sir, don't tell daddy where we are!" Francisca begged. I looked between the two and sighed.

"Fine," I said, walking away. "Hope you two are happy together."

"Mario, I don't want to tell the guy where they are any more than you do," Goombella said, "but… we gotta tell him something."

"Don't worry, Goombella," I said, tapping the side of my head and grinning. "I got a plan."

* * *

"…then ALIENS flew down and kidnapped them both?" the Don asked, looking at us in the same "are you just stupid?" way a cat does.

"Yeah!" I nodded. "And that's why I couldn't bring either of them back!"

"…how stupid do you think I am?" the Don asked angrily, standing up.

"Apparently not as stupid as I had hoped," I said, stepping back.

"Oh, you're gonna be sorry you ever crossed my path when I'm done with-" the Don started.

"Daddy, no!" a female voice cried out. We all turned to see Frankie and Francisca run into the office.

"Uh… oh, look!" I said. "They must have hijacked an escape pod and-"

"Mario," Goombella said. "Stop while you're ahead. Or, at the very least, not as far back as you're heading."

"Fine…" I sighed, stepping back as the two Piantas approached the Don.

"Daddy, please don't get mad at Frankie!" Francisca begged. "It was my idea, punish me!"

"No, da-er, boss!" Frankie said. "I shouldn't have left with your daughter, she's innocent, punish me!"

"No daddy!"

"No boss!"

"Daddy!"

"Boss!"

"SHUT UP, THE BOTH OF YOU!" the Don finally screamed. Everyone in the room winced away from him.

"…get out of my sight," the Don said, turning away.

"…wha-" started Francisca.

"I SAID GET OUT!" the Don said. "You two want to be together… fine! Run off, I never want to see you again!"

Francisca's eyes lit up.

"Oh Daddy, thank you!" she said, running off with Frankie.

"Thanks, boss!" Frankie said. "We'll never forget ya!"

I swore I could hear the Don sniffle back some tears as they left.

"…uh," I said, raising a hand.

"What, you're still here?" the Don asked, turning to us.

"Well… the tickets and all…" Koops muttered, stepping back and quivering.

"Well… you did bring them back, even if it wasn't what I expected…" the Don sighed. "Alright. I'm a Pianta of my word. Here, take it."

He handed me four tickets to the blimp.

"Uh… thanks!" I grinned. "Seriously, this means a lot to-"

"You can thank me by getting out," the Don said, turning his back to us. "I don't ever wanna see that black mustached face of yours again!"

"…right, okay," I said, leaving with my friends.

"Well… we have the tickets," Goombella said. "Forget what I said about being unlucky, this was a lucky streak a mile long."

"Alright," I said with a yawn, looking up at the twilight sky above me. "Looks like we better head to the Inn. We'll get to the blimp tomorrow."

* * *

I was lying on my bed after an awkward encounter with the girl at the Inn-I learned her name was Iuka-and staring at the ceiling in thought. I looked at my left hand and took off my glove, raising an eyebrow at what I saw.

"Weird…" I muttered.

"What?" Koops asked.

"My Nightmare hand…" I said, showing him. "I thought it ended at my wrist, but… it's, like, an inch and a half below my wrist."

I pulled my sleeve back and showed him.

"Uh… M-Mario, maybe you should lay off the powers…" he said.

"Oh don't worry, it's probably nothing," I shrugged, turning in my bed. "G'Night, Koops."

"Uh… right, goodnight," Koops said, tucking himself into his own bed and staring out the window, searching in the sky for the giant floating city we were going to.

* * *

**Author's Note: Gah, I REALLY need to stop putting this off. Well, 'till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	21. Chapter 21: The Tree or Ark 2 Recap

**Author's Note: And now the Ark 2 recap/look into Goombella's mind! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 21: "The Tree"**_

* * *

_**Excerpt from Goombella's Journal:**_

* * *

Today was, if possible, stranger than yesterday. See, we started off searching the Rougeport Sewers for a pipe leading to the Boggly Woods so we could get the next Crystal Star. While searching, I saw a little creature run into a hole in the wall. I told Mario and Koops, and together we found a way into the other room and came face-to-face with a Puni.

He said his name was Punio and that the X-Nauts had invaded his tree. He had no idea what the Crystal Star was, but he promised us that if we kicked the X-Nauts out, we could have it. Naturally, Mario and I both wanted to make those stupid X-loving men pay, so we agreed and followed Punio through a pipe to the Boggly Woods.

Along the way to the tree, we encountered three odd-colored Nightmares. The youngest one had a necklace with her, but after the oldest one blamed her for losing the picture of their target (Mario), she stole the necklace from her. What a total jerk, you know what I mean?

Well, when we finally got to the tree, it turned out the X-Nauts had installed an electronic door into the only entrance, so we couldn't get it. Punio said there was a secret entrance, but it was covered by, and I quote, "an invisible thingy," so we needed the help of Madame Flurrie-a friend of the Punies'-to uncover the invisible "thing" and get through.

Punio led us further into the woods and to a posh house in a clearing. Flurrie was there, but… apparently, she wouldn't let herself be seen, even if her closest friends the Punies were in trouble, unless she had her necklace on.

Completely vain, am I right? I mean… I really wanted to hate this woman, but… I just can't. She's horribly annoying at times, but she just kind of… grows on you, ya know?

Well anyway, I remembered the Nightmares had the necklace, so we left to get it. After a battle, in which Mario cut off the oldest sister's arm (after learning that he could use his Nightmare Powers to cast magic), they left through pillars of darkness, leaving behind the necklace.

We ran back and gave it to Flurrie, so she came out and (after kissing Mario so hard it literally made him pass out), came with us to the tree to remove the invisible "thingy".

I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing at first, but then I learned what Flurrie could do.

Turns out, she was a Wind Spirit.

And she had power over… guess what? If you guessed fire, then you need to have your mind examined. Of course, since you're a journal and all, you don't exactly have a mind…

Anyway, after Flurrie let out a massive gale, a section of space ripped off like paper, leaving behind a secret entrance for Punio to scurry into. As soon as he did, he opened the door for us and let us into the tree.

The interior was… wow. Just… wow. I knew it looked big on the outside, but I lost all sense of space inside! The bark was parted so it allowed chambers, water flowed and departed into mini-rivers and waterfalls inside the tree… it was just so amazing! Nature is just awesome.

Well, as soon as we entered, we encountered some X-Nauts. We beat them down easy, then met a fat Puni named Puniper. He refused to join us until we saved all the other Punies, so we went up to do just that.

When we got there, Goompa showed up and, after poofing away with Mario, released the Punies in a puff of smoke, dropping them all on the ground with Mario. He didn't exactly say what he went through, but I can guess nothing normal.

Then again… nothing is EVER normal on our adventure, it seems…

Well, after Puniper joined our team (quite quickly when Punio's sister, Petuni, asked him), we all went down through the tree. We faced a few challenges, and one of them the floozy Ms. Mowz had to break us out of. After kissing Mario (AGAIN), she left, telling us the bottom of the tree was where the Crystal Star was. I SWEAR, that stupid mouse gets on my nerves! She's not THAT pretty!

…I know how it sounds, but I am NOT jealous! So what if that Mouse got to kiss Mario? So what if she got close to him and managed to bring her lips onto his, look into his beautiful eyes…

…okay, I am officially saying this: If anyone reads this without my permission, I will hunt you down and Headbonk you into sludge.

Anyway, we got to the bottom of the tree and released the Crystal Star, where upon Crump ran around and stole it from us! That no good dirty rotten… and directly afterwards, he started a time bomb!

Fortunately for us, we managed to get out way before the time was over with. Crump was held up by the Puni elder, so his only choice was to fight us. He got into a giant fighting robot and fought us with it. At first, due to the fact metal apparently absorbs the power of a Crystal Star nearby, Mario couldn't hurt it with his Nightmare Hand. So, Koops and I distracted Crump while Mario broke through the dome and knocked the Crystal Star out. After he absorbed the star into his sword, he turned and crushed the robot like a soda can. He looked kind of cool when he did all that… uh… moving on…

We returned to the Thousand Year Door (along the way, I learned that Mario's single) and learned that the location of the next Crystal Star was in the floating city of Glitzville. The only way to get to it was to ride a blimp, and the only way to get there was to get some tickets from a Mafia.

Yeah, you read that right: A MAFIA.

Well, we agreed to find the Don's sister for him, but it turned out she was in love with this other Pianta and all they wanted to do was run off together. So Mario made up an insane, complicated story about them being kidnapped by Aliens.

It was kind of pathetic, actually.

The Don was about to beat us into a little pile of gloop when the two Piantas returned and begged the Don not to hurt the other. Eventually, the Don just told them both to leave, allowing them, in his own twisted way, to run off together. When they left, the Don kept his word and gave us all tickets to the blimp going to Glitzville.

The blimp leaves tomorrow, so we're resting at the Inn for the night. I notice the girl at the Inn-Iuka, I think she said her name was-seems to be romantically attracted to Mario's Nightmare hand. Well, to each their own, but that seems a little… odd to me.

Anyway, I better get some sleep, but I just have one thing to say… Mario seems to be relying on his Nightmare Powers a tad bit too much. I mean, if I could choose between a magic sword and a Nightmare hand, I'd choose the sword. Well… if I HAD hands, anyway.

Well, that's it for now. Tomorrow, we go to the city of Glitzville!

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, the late update this time was NOT my fault. It was my stupid internet, refusing to work. Anyway, come Monday we'll be going to Glitzville and beating others senseless! 'Till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**

**EDIT: ****I'm sorry to have to fool you guys like this, but it was the only way I figured I could get your attention. I wanted you to know that all news will be found on my profile page, this news will talk about things such as absances of chapters and such. So if a chapter's missing (like it is today), check my profile for explination.**


	22. Chapter 22: Glitzville

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, everyone. Well, here's the new chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

**_Chapter 22: Glitzville_**

* * *

**_Enter Iuka:_**

* * *

I was looking in a mirror as I tied my apron on. Noticing a hair out of place, I gently placed it back into my long, black hair.

"Okay…" I said to myself with a nod and a smile. "Yeah… I think he'll like this."

With a deep breath, I stepped out to the pub, tying my apron on as I did so. When I got out, however, I saw the only person there was George, leaning back in a chair and resting his feet on a table.

"Morning," George saluted as I looked around.

"Uh… where's-" I started.

"They left early in the morning to catch the Blimp," I replied.

"Oh…" I said. He apparently saw my face fell, so he said "Oh don't worry Iuka, they should be back soon enough. It's like a pattern with them: They leave for a day, do something like save the world or similar, then they come back in the evening to rest before repeating the process."

"You think so?" I asked.

"Yeah," George nodded. "Now if you'll need me, I'll be digging in the dumpsters, looking for newspapers."

"Uh… George," I said as he made his way to the door, "we can afford our own Newspapers. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," George smirked, "but it's not as fun. See you at lunch, Iuka."

With that, he left. I sighed before going back behind the counter, spraying it clean for the breakfast rush that was sure to come soon.

* * *

**_Enter Pax:_**

* * *

You know what I hate about rides that take you through the air? I mean, don't get me wrong: They have a bunch of awesome stuff, too. They're comfy, have nice air conditioning, and the view is amazing. But what I REALLY hate about it is when your ears pop. I mean, it's just so annoying! It's not exactly painful, just an annoyance, like a fly sitting on the tip of your nose.

Well, I had this feeling as we climbed up through the sky. Not only that, I kept having it still as we landed, because… well, Frankly wasn't kidding when he said it was a city in the sky. It was so high up, I could look over the edge and see the clouds pass below me! That is… if I wanted to get close enough to do that. I mean, I'm kind of a vertigo kid: Every time I look down from a really high place, I get dizzy.

But, I'm getting off topic again.

"Welcome to Glitzville!" our Pilot said as we disembarked. "Thank you for flying air Cheep-Cheep, and we hope you have a nice day!"

"Thanks, you too," I smiled as we stepped off the blimp. The city was full of flashing lights and distractions. Restaurants, betting booths, gift shops… it had many of these small attractions, but they were all centered around one main attraction: A huge building in the center of the city, with statues of buff looking dudes in extreme poses on the outside.

"What is that?" I asked my friends.

"Uh… hold on," Koops said, opening a Travel Brochure with a picture of Glitzville on the front. "Says here… that's the city's main attraction, the Glitz Pit. Fighters from all over the world gather there to duke it out for no greater purpose than to amuse the masses that enjoy watching blood."

"…sound like fun!" Goombella said. "C'mon, let's see if they broke anyone's bones yet!"

"Right behind you!" I grinned, following close behind her.

"Hey, wait for me!" Flurrie said, catching up to us. "I want to see pain just as much as the next person!"

"…right," Koops sighed, closing the brochure and following behind us. "Violence… fun."

* * *

"Man, this is gonna be good!" I said, taking my seat next to Goombella and Flurrie. Koops sat on the other side of Goombella, looking a little put off by the whole thing.

"It better be, with the seats being 25 coins a pop…" Koops muttered.

"Ah cheer up!" Goombella said. "What do you have against violence, anyway?"

"Well… I just thing fighting should be in self-defense," Koops said. "As soon as you make it into a sport and make people beat each other up so that others can find enjoyment in it, it's no longer honorable. It's just a bloodbath that's only fit in the presence of barbarians and sadists."

"…ah, darn you!" I said, crossing my arms. "Now I feel bad watching this!"

"Too late now, we already paid," sighed Koops.

"Come on, let's calm down everyone," Flurrie said. "Look, the fight's about to start."

"In this corner," a blue Clubba-a fat creature with the ability to lift twice its weight-cried out into a microphone, "our current champion and high-class fighter… RAWK HAWK!"

MASSIVE cheering went through the audience as a buff Hawk-like creature with yellow feathers stepped on stage, looking smug.

"And in this corner," the Clubba continued, "his armor's not as dark as his soul… give it up for the Koopinator!"

A Dark Koopatrol-a Koopa with dark armor and blood red eyes-stepped onto the arena, glaring at Rawk Hawk. Apparently, he took the fighting a lot more seriously than Rawk did.

"Let's get ready to… BATTLE!" the Clubba said, waving his hand down. There was a gong, and the fight officially began.

The Koopinator ran forward, his head pointed so the spike on his hat would hit Rawk. Rawk, in turn, jumped over him and kicked him in the back, causing him to fly to the other side of the stage. After rolling back to his feet, the Koopinator shot into his shell, charged on the spot, and launched at Rawk. Rawk did a fake yawn before flipping JUST in time to launch the shell into the air. Running forward, he jumped straight up and punched the underside of the shell, causing the Koopinator to come out with a look of pain on his face. Rawk flipped him and slammed him down, shell first, on the ground. He then ran to the edge of the stage, jumped into the air (spreading his wings in a completely show-off fashion), and slammed down on the underside of the Koopinator, effectively knocking him out.

"Woo doggie!" the Clubba said as the audience (me included… don't judge me) cheered. "We got ourselves a winner! Defending champion, Rawk Hawk!"

"Yeah!" Rawk said, flexing his arms. "Mess with the Hawk and you'll get RAAAAAAWKED!"

"And with this title comes the Champion's Belt!" the Clubba continued, holding up a belt that had on it…

"The Crystal Star!" the four of us gasped in unison.

"…okay, that's kind of creepy," a Toad sitting in front of us said, turning around to face us. "You know, the way you for just… said that at the same time and all…"

"Oh shut up and eat your hotdog," Goombella said as we left. With a shrug, the Toad turned forward and did just as Goombella suggested.

* * *

"Well… we found the Crystal Star," I said as we sat around in the lobby.

"But how do we get it?" Flurrie asked. "I mean… we can't just go up to that Rawk fellow and ask for his prized belt now, can we?"

"We can't steal it either…" Koops said.

"Yeah, you're right…" I said. "We'd never get away with a heist that big…"

"…I meant from a MORAL perspective, Mario," Koops said.

"Oh, uh… yeah, me too…" I said, laughing nervously.

"…what if we signed up?" Goombella suggested.

"Pardon?" asked Koops.

"Think about it," Goombella said, jumping up and pacing around us. "If we joined and fought our way to the top, we could earn that Champion's Belt and get the Crystal Star! And this way, we'd be doing it legally!"

"…I like how you think, Goombella!" I said, jumping up. "All we gotta do is find out where we sign up and-"

"Now hold on!" Koops said. "Okay, first of all, did you not SEE that battle? That Rawk is a monster!"

"And I have a hand that can bend reinforced steel as if it were a pipe cleaner," I replied, wiggling my left hand for emphasis. "Your point?"

"W-well… it can't be THAT easy to sign up!" Koops said. "I mean… it's not like we can waltz right in, ask for a spot and get it right from the get-go!"

* * *

"I can't believe we waltzed right in, asked for a spot and got it from the get-go!" Koops complained as I shook hands with the Clubba.

"Please," the Clubba said, "call me Grubba. So nice to see young spirits like you four joining our league!"

"Thanks!" I smiled. "So, uh… when do we start?"

"Immediately!" Grubba said. "Oh Jolene!"

It was then a pretty Toad in a business dress walked in, adjusting her glasses.

"Show these four to their new living quarters," Grubba said.

"Yes sir," Jolene said. "If you'll kindly follow me…"

With that, the four of us left the room, prepared to start our adventure.

Little did we know, however, we wouldn't be returning to Rougeport that night…

Mainly because the whole thing was so full of fights and timeslots, it took us a few nights to get through it all!

…okay, not only am I getting ahead of myself, I also just ruined a perfectly good cliffhanger. But at least I did it with humor, so that makes up for it! Right guys?

…guys?

* * *

**Author's Note: Don't bet on it, me. Anywho, tomorrow's the day I'm actually in the play "The Elves and the Shoemaker" playing the part of Mortz, the leader of the shoe-making Elves! Wish me luck, loyal readers! Well, 'till Wednesday, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing-**

**WAIT! I almost forgot! I'm now making my own webcomic! Those of you who love the random humor and pointing out of obvious flaws in the gaming world of this story… well, you might like my webcomic anyway. The link to my DeviantArt account, where the comic will be posted, can be found on my profile page.**

**Well, that covers everything (for real this time!), so until Wednesday, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	23. Chapter 23: You're the Best

**Author's Note: This chapter is brought to you by insomnia! Huzzah! Oh, and for those of you who actually care about what happens in my life (all… one of you), the school play turned out GREAT. Well, that's enough for now. Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 23: You're the best ('till you get to those darned spiky things…)**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Seeing as you're in the minor league," Jolene said, opening a door for us, "you'll be staying in the minor league locker room."

The room was… well, to put it nicely: DISGUSTING.

"This is the men's," she said, leading Goombella and Flurrie away. "If you'll just follow me…"

"Is it too late to change my mind?" Flurrie asked as she was pulled away. I sighed as I stepped in.

"The things I do to save the world…" I muttered.

"Well," Koops said, looking at a nearby pitcher, "at least they were kind enough to leave us some water. Huh… I don't recall water being brown or-oh Stars, it's moving…"

After that little experience, Koops stayed close behind me, peeking over my shoulder to see the horrid excuse of a room as I explored. In the room was several bunk beds (horribly tattered sheets and rusted pipes holding them up), broken lockers, and a few other combatants.

"Hey… we got a couple of new guys!" a Gold shelled Koopa said, jumping up and holding out his hand to me. "Man, name's King K. Nice to see a fresh face around here."

"Thanks!" I grinned, shaking his hand. "I'm Mario, and this is my friend Koops."

"Please don't get me involved," begged Koops.

"So… this all you got, a two-man team?" King K asked. "I mean, I'm not insulting or anything, just wondering…"

"Nah, it's cool," I shrugged. "Actually, we have two more team mates waiting in the girl's locker room."

"Oh really?" King K asked. "Cool. Well, welcome to the Minor Leagues. Here, let me introduce you to the guys."

He motioned a Shy Guy over.

"This here's Bandy Andy," he said. "He has sticky hands when it comes to other people's pockets, so watch out."

"Oh King K, you're a riot and a half!" laughed Bandy Andy.

"Yeah…" King K said with his own laugh. "Now give me back my wallet, klepto."

"Yeesh, sorry…" Bandy Andy said, tossing King K back his wallet.

"Yeah…" King K said as he shoved the wallet back into his pocket. "Anyway, this here's Cleftor."

He motioned to a Hyper Bald Cleft (a green rock creature that looks like a bald head) as he said this.

"…me no like new people," Cleftor huffed. "I crush you like bugs when we get in arena."

"Please don't," Koops said. "I rather like my shell and would prefer to keep it in one piece."

"Ah don't worry man," King K said as he lead us away from him. "He talks big, but he's a total closet softie. Anyway, this here's Spike…"

He went through the whole room of dudes. Some of them greeted us warmly. Others didn't quite do the same.

"And last but not least," King K said, walking to a closed door, "this here's Master Crash, the-"

"Oi, plummer!" a voice said. I turned to see a Security Guard standing by a door.

"Match time, bub," he said.

_Well then, thank you kind sir for being so polite to us… _"Okay, we're coming. Nice talkin' to ya, King K!"

"Well… that wasn't too bad, I guess…" Koops said sheepishly as we left the locker room.

"You see?" I shrugged. "We'll be over with all this in no time!"

After Goombella and Flurrie joined us, we entered the Arena. The lights shined off the floor and screen as the screams and cheering of the audience blared in our ears.

"Okay ladies and gentlemen!" called out Grubba into a microphone. "It's noon, and you know what that means! Yup, we're back at the bottom of the barrel!"

A collective groan came from the audience.

"But today," Grubba said, "we have some newcomers! Let's give our fresh meat a round of applause!"

Half-hearted applause came from the audience.

"Thank you, feels great to be wanted," Goombella said sarcastically.

"AAAAND in this corner!" Grubba said. "The Meteorite Hardheads… yup, let's give a welcome to the Goomba Bros.!"

You could have heard a cricket chirp through the audience.

"Okay feller…" Grubba said as he walked over to me, "there are just a few rules I wanted to go over with you before we-"

"TAKE THIS!" a Goomba shouted, running forward and jumping toward me. Eyes widening, I shoved Grubba out of the way and met the Goomba's Headbonk with a punch from my Nightmare hand. There was a crack as the Goomba was flung back, unconscious. I could hear some nervous mutterings between people in the audience.

"Grah… WE'LL STILL BEAT YOU!" cried out another Goomba as the group jumped at us. I ran forward, met another Goomba with a Nightmare Punch, then flipped into the air and landed on the head of another.

"Hey, Mario!" Goombella said. "Leave some for us, will ya?"

She smirked as she ran forward, Headbonking one into oblivion as Flurrie floated forward and crushed another Goomba under her… presence.

Dead silence fell across the stage and audience.

Then, cheering erupted from the audience.

"Woo doggie!" Grubba said with a grin. "Now there's something you don't see every day! We got ourselves a winner! Tell me son, what's your name?"

"Mario," I said.

"Mario… that doesn't roll off the tongue… wait, how about-" started Grubba.

"Pax," I interrupted. "Pax the Dreamer."

Grubba blinked at me.

"Pax the Dreamer… huh. I like it, kid." He smirked as he turned back to the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen… let's hear it for PAX THE DREAMER!"

* * *

"So," King K said as we entered the room again, "Pax the Dreamer, eh?"

"Yeah… I panicked, how does it sound honestly?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head.

"…I honestly like it," nodded King K.

"Really? Well, thanks!"

"Don't thank me yet," King K laughed. "Get some rest while you can, you got about ten minutes 'till your n ext fight."

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Fifteen minutes between each fighting time slot," King K said. "You beat the Goombas, so now you're Rank 19. Get to Rank 10 and you hit the big times: The Major League."

"Oh, so next up we'll be fighting whoever's Rank 18?" Koops asked. "Well then… who is that?"

"You're lookin' at him," King K said. "Don't expect me to hold back, Dreamer."

"So long as you don't expect the same from me!" I said, knuckle touching my buddy.

* * *

The following's just a neat transition scene that has no real place but to add to the word count, but it's still fun. While you're reading this, play "You're the Best Around" by Joe Esposito:

I jumped into the air, my fist aimed down toward the shells of the Koopas. They scattered and fell across the stage. I whirled around to face…

…the Pokey Triplets, which had only been shaken by the gale Flurrie blew, aimed at us and fired. We jumped out of the way, and Koops shot forward in his shell, knocking those oversized cacti to pieces all over the place. I ran over and kicked…

…the legs out from under a Dry Bones, causing it to collapse on the spot. The bones were then blown away by a huge gale caused by Flurrie, knocking into his allies and blowing them all around. She stopped blowing once they reached the height of the air ride, and we all watched the falling of…

…the Spiny, which bounced off the ground and unrolled into a dangerous creature, glaring at us. Deciding that the Lakitu was the bigger threat, I turned and nodded to Koops and Goombella. We had a plan of action. I held out my arm, which Goombella jumped into, and I jumped onto the shell of Koops, which was already spinning in place and revving up. With a powerful wind blast from Flurrie, we launched forward, crashing through several Spinies. I kicked off from Koops and landed a punch on the Lakitu in midair. As I began to fall, I spun and launched Goombella up. She landed a powerful Headbonk on the Lakitu before landing on the ground, grinning at the unconscious creature. I gave her a thumbs up before turning around and punching…

...the gut of a Shy Guy, who had just stolen my precious coins. He cried out in pain as he stepped back, bumping into Goombella. She gave a mock bow of greeting before Headbonking him in the back, launching him forward and making him land on his face. She ran forward and jumped into the air…

…landing on the Dark Puff, which cried out as it faded into unconsciousness. She looked smug for a moment before turning to see a Pale Piranha Plant waiting for her. It opened its mouth to bite her, but I intercepted with a well-placed Nightmare Punch to the side of its maw. I turned my head to look back at my friend…

…Koops, who was cornered by the Hyper Bald Clefts. Flurrie took a deep breath, then shot a powerful gale at the creatures, flipping most on their backs. Grinning and nodding thanks to Flurrie, Koops shot forward in his shell, causing massive damage to…

…the Bob-omb. Charged with anger, it marched forward, ready to explode. I jumped back, kicking another Bob-omb toward the charged one. The massive explosion caused all the Bob-ombs to be knocked out.

"And we have our winner!" Grubba said. "Folks, this is something the Glitz Pit ain't never seen before! This team went from the bottom to Rank 11 in one day! Stay here folks, 'cause next fight will have our favorite plumber fighting to get back into the Major Leagues! Let's hear it for… PAX! THE! DREAMER!"

Loud cheering came from the audience as I waved at them. We were apparently a lot more popular than I thought.

Oh, and you can stop the music now if you want. Or keep it playing, 'cause it IS a good song.

* * *

"Well," I said, stretching my arms as we walked toward the exit of the Glitz Pit, "this has been an eventful two hours."

"You said it," Koops said, rubbing his shoulder.

"Hm… I wonder what kind of food they have to offer…" Flurrie said.

We were all starving at that point, so we were going outside to check out this Hot Dog stand that everyone kept talking about. Upon exiting the Glitz Pit, however, we were greeted to quite a sight:

"Hey!" a humanoid Pig, the owner of the Hot Dog stand (oh the irony…) said as he chased after a white egg with colorful polka dots. "Come back here, you naughty egg!"

"…do you guys see-" I started.

"An egg hopping around on its own?" asked Goombella. I nodded.

"Yeah," Goombella said. "Yeah, I see it."

"Darn, and here I was hoping I was just starting to hallucinate…" I sighed. "C'mon, that Pig might hurt himself if we don't help him out…"

It took a moment, but with a little teamwork, we managed to corner and catch the egg.

"Gotcha!" I said, holding the egg in my hands. "Okay little guy, what's up?"

The egg shook in my hands, as if begging me not to let it be cooked.

"Er…" I said, suddenly feeling sympathy for the creature. After all, if it could move and respond to stimuli, it must have been alive and intelligent. "Excuse me, Pig person?"

"My name is not Pig Person!" the Pig said. "I'll have you know my name's-"

"Yeah whatever, listen," I interrupted. "Do you mind if we set this egg free? It obviously doesn't want to be cooked."

"Well…" sighed the Pig. "I heard all about this exotic recipe using a special egg from a far away island… but then again, I don't think anyone would want to eat something that's been hopping around all over the place… alright, go ahead. Let it free."

"Awesome," I nodded, setting the egg down. "Well, you're free to go now, little egg guy."

After getting some hotdogs, we started back toward the Glitz Pit, but were stopped by the egg.

"Huh?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Aw… I think it likes you, Mario!" Goombella said. "…that, and the fact this is a FLOATING CITY, so the egg couldn't have gone anywhere anyway."

"Oh… right," I said, face palming. "Well… if you'd like, I guess you could stay with us, if you'd like."

The egg hopped enthusiastically, as if saying "yes" over and over again.

"Alright!" I said, picking up the egg and walking back into the Glitz Pit. "I'll just set you in the Locker Room, and you can listen all about how we beat Rank 10 and become part of the Major League! And considering the fact we make an epic team with many strategies and abilities, there's no way we can lose!"

* * *

"No way we can lose, huh?" Koops asked, keeping some ice on his swollen face.

"Oh shut up," I said, gripping my side in pain. "How was I supposed to know those things were indestructible!"

"What I'm wondering is why they're not higher in the rankings if they can't be defeated…" Goombella said. "Well, I'll go dress my wounds. I'll see you guys later, we can practice and fight them tomorrow."

With a nod, I started to the room and froze.

"Uh, Goombella?" I called. "Flurrie? Come here!"

They rushed over and gasped at the sight:

An empty, broken shell was lying on the ground.

"Oh no…" I said, bending down and picking up a shard of egg. "Poor little egg…"

"Who could have done this?" Flurrie asked. "Who would want to do this?"

"I did," a voice behind us said. It was squeaky, but at the same time, punk-ish. We whirled around to face…

Ha! This time, I'm actually making a half-decent cliffhanger! Who's the chump now, huh? NOT ME!

* * *

**Author's Note: …sure, me. Keep telling myself that. ANYWAY, seeing as I'm already staying up freakishly late to write this, I better keep the Author's Note short. 'Till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**

**PS: Link to my DeviantArt account, which holds my new webcomic "Steven's Quest" (Updates Monday-Wednesday) can be found on my profile page.**


	24. Chapter 24: The Dawn of the Yoshi

**Author's Note: This chapter is brought to you by procrastination! Horray for putting things off 'till the last minute when you pull something out of your butt and polish it up using hours you could be spending sleeping making it into something half-decent! …anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 24: The Dawn of the Yoshi**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

…a tiny, red Yoshi with a Mohawk, looking up at us.

"Hey guys!" he said in his squeaky little voice, which wouldn't be NEARLY as adorable if it didn't contradict the trying-to-be-punk look he had.

"Uh… hey," I waved.

"Aw, you are the most adorable little thing I've ever seen!" Flurrie said, wrapping the Yoshi in a tight hug.

"Choking… me…" he gasped.

"Oh, sorry…" Flurrie said, placing him down. "I have got to stop doing that…"

"Wait… did you hatch from this egg?" Goombella asked.

"Yup!" nodded the Yoshi. "It feels great to finally be out and chatting with you guys!"

"So… what's your name?" Koops asked.

"Well, seeing as I was just hatched… I don't have one yet," the Yoshi said. "Maybe you could name me?"

"Hm… I know, how about Eggwardo?" I joked with a little laugh.

"Wait, why not something like Jeggob?" Koops asked. After a long train of thought, I finally said:

"No. We are never to speak of either of those names again as long as we live."

"Chill man," Goombella said. "Just a… yolk."

She couldn't help but laugh here.

"You wouldn't be laughing if you saw those movies…" I twitched. "So terrible…"

"…what?" Goombella asked.

"Nothing, SO ANYWAY…" I said, turning back to the Yoshi. "Hm… well… spiky hair… neon colored… protagonist expression… oh, I got it! Yoshi, your name is… Leon!"

"…Leon?" Goombella asked.

"Hm… I like it!" the Yoshi said. "Okay, my name is Leon!"

"Great to meet ya, Leon!" I said. "My name's-"

"Oh you don't need to tell me," Leon said. "I heard everything in the egg. You're Goombella, the smart and sassy one… You're Koops, the meek one… You're Flurrie, the performer… and you're Pax the Dreamer, the leader!"

"Er… well, I suppose that's close enough," I shrugged. "Welcome to the team! Er… sorry, but you kinda came at a bad time. We just lost to those spiked dudes."

"Maybe I can help!" Leon said, jumping on the spot.

"I dunno…" Koops said, rubbing the back of his head. "They're kinda… indestructible."

"The only thing that could hurt them would be if we managed to throw one at the other," Goombella said. "And not even Mari-er… Pax can do that."

"C'mon, I can help!" Leon said. "Really! The Yoshi have the ability to do exactly what you're asking!"

"…how would you know that?" I asked. "You were just born not fifteen minutes ago. Hey, while we're at it, how can you even walk yet? I thought you needed time for your legs to adjust and muscles to strengthen before you began walking."

"…he DOES understand this is a Mario game, right?" Leon asked Flurrie.

"Yes, but he still doesn't quite grasp the concept that there is no logic here," she replied.

"Alright, enough fourth wall breaking!" I said. "Okay, Leon… if you really wanna fight, I guess I can't stop you."

"Yay!" Leon cheered, hugging my leg. "Thank you, Pax!"

"Heh… no problem," I said, patting his head, feeling strange having someone refer to me as my real name instead of Mario.

"Hey, Dreamer," a security guard suddenly said, peeking his head in. "The Tiny Spinies chickened out of their time slot. You're up."

"Really?" I asked. "Well, tha-"

"Get moving, we all wanna see your butt handed to you again," the guard snapped.

"Hm… can we add a new team member?" I asked.

"Sure, whatever," the guard said, not really sounding like he cared in the least. "Just follow me."

"Okay then!" I said, marching forward, Leon by my side.

* * *

"In this corner!" Grubba cried out to the audience. "The Iron Adonis Twins… yup, put your hands together for the Armored Harriers!"

Cheering came as the two spiked creatures came on stage.

"And in this corner…" Grubba continued. "You know 'em, you love 'em, here's the team behind our leading contender shooting through the ranks… Pax! The! Dreamer!"

Cheering came from all around us as we walked on stage.

"Huh?" Grubba asked. "Who's this little fella?"

"His name's Leon!" I said. "He wanted to join our team, so we let him! That's… allowed, right?"

"…sure, why the heck not?" Grubba shrugged. "Let's get ready to… BATTLE!"

"Heh… hey, Dreamer!" the Red-shoed spiked creature said. "Why don't you Dream about beating us? 'Cause that's the only place where you can!"

"Yeah!" the Green shoed one said. "And you know what else? When we're through with you, you'll be dreaming an awful long time… in the hospital bed!"

"Oh, good one bro!" the Red shoed one laughed. "And you know what else else?"

"What?" the Green shoed one asked.

"…some witty Dream-related comment!" the Red-shoed one said before bursting into laughter.

"Oh, that was hilarious!" the Green-shoed one laughed.

"…really?" Goombella asked. "Just… really?"

"…whatever, we'll get you!" the Red-shoed one said, charging toward us.

"Don't worry," Leon scoffed, strutting forward. "I can take these guys!"

"Leon, wait!" Koops said, stepping forward. "These guys are-"

Suddenly, Leon shot out his tongue and swallowed the Red-shoed one whole.

"…invulnerable," Koops finished, his eyes wide. By the silence around the stadium, I could tell everyone else was doing the same.

"Ooph…" Leon said, his voice muffled by a full mouth, even though his cheeks were only puffing out a tiny bit while the spiked creature was ten times his size. "Uh cah phowow hiph."

He spat the spiked creature out at the speed of a bullet. It shot through the iron flesh of the other one as they both collapsed.

"…wait a minute, the only thing that hurts them is themselves?" I asked. "Then why the heck didn't it cause any damage when I actually picked one of them up and threw him at the-"

There was a loud CRACK, and suddenly, the shells peeled off, revealing two pink, puffy blobs of flesh.

"…oh, this is gonna be fun," I grinned, walking toward the things.

"WE FORFEIT!" the two cried as they hopped off.

"Oh COME ON!" I said, stomping my foot.

"Can't win 'em all," Goombella sighed.

"We got ourselves a winner!" Grubba said. "Folks, looks like the winner of this match, and the one who moves onto the Major Leagues is… PAX! THE! DREAMER!"

"Yeah," I said, leaning near the microphone, "but we could never have done it if it weren't for our newest team member… LEON!"

I held Leon over my head for the everyone to see. Leon hammed it up in my arms as the crowd gave a combination of cheering and cooing at the adorableness that was Leon.

"We did it!" Leon said, hugging my face. "Told ya I could do it, Pax!"

"You sure did!" I laughed. "Sorry for doubting you, Le-AUGH!"

"We're one step closer to the Major Leagues, sweetie!" Flurrie said, wrapping me in a death grip.

"Choking… me…" I grunted as Leon hopped off my head, grinning.

"Oh… sorry…" Flurrie said, letting go of me.

"Well… we did it!" Koops said, waving to the crowd and blushing when they cheered. "Cool!"

"Yeah! Did you expect anything less?" Goombella cried out. "We're the best around! Nothing's ever gonna keep us down!"

"…nice reference," I said, grinning at her.

As the cheering continued, we were lead back to our locker rooms to gather our stuff so we could move to the Major Leagues.

* * *

**Author's Note: …it took me most of the day to write this chapter? Darn you, procrastination! Anyway, because of my high grades, I got out of school a week early! A whole 111 Days off school! That makes 48 LotDK chapters, 80 comics of Steven's Quest, and 16 blissful weeks of relaxation! Well, I'll stop holding you up. 'Till Monday, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	25. Chapter 25: X Quest

**Author's Note: Alright, I'm finally writing this ahead of time instead of procrastinating! Enjoy, everyone!**

* * *

_**Chapter 25: X Quest**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"I'm thinking about blowing this popsicle stand," King K said as I was packing up my stuff. This caused me to stop and turn to him.

"Wait, what?" I asked. "Why?"

"I just… I don't feel like I can keep doing this anymore," King K said, rubbing the back of his head as Koops and Leon walked closer to be part of the conversation. "All this fighting… the pay is horrible, I wake up every morning feeling sore, and I miss my family."

"Well… alright," I sighed. "Just… watch your back, okay?"

"Hey," King K said, knuckle-touching me, "I always have."

* * *

"I'm gonna miss him," sighed Koops as we walked with Flurrie and Goombella to the Major League locker room.

"Me too," I replied.

"Miss who?" questioned Flurrie.

"King K, the gold-shelled Koopas," I explained. "He left today."

"Excuse me," Jolene said, stopping and turning to face us, "who did what now?"

"King K," I said. "He… left the Glitz Pit. Why, what's wrong?"

"…nothing you should concern yourselves about," Jolene said, turning back around and walking forward.

"Right, of course not…" Goombella muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.

* * *

"Wow… swanky," Leon said as we entered the guy's locker room. Indeed, the place seemed to shine and glisten, the lockers were actually usable, the sheets on the beds were clean, and the water appeared non-toxic.

"Now if you two would just follow me…" Jolene said, leading Goombella and Flurrie away to their locker room.

"Well… this place seems nice," said Koops.

"But the people aren't," Leon said. "I mean, the least they can do is give us a hello! They're just totally ignoring us!"

"Go to the Underwhere, you lucky piles of Chain-Chomp droppings," a Major Leaguer said as he passed us, glaring as he said it.

"…okay, hostility, I get it man," Leon said.

"Wait a second…" I said, turning to the Yoshi. "I've been meaning to ask… you were JUST born, right? So… how are you able to form complete sentences? It's not like walking, which is more of instinct, you have to actually LEARN it."

"Oh, there's actually a very simple answer to that," Leon said. "So simple it's kind of silly to think of any kind of complicated fan-based theories about it. You see-"

"Move it before you get Rawked!" a voice said outside the Locker Room.

"…is that who I think it is?" Koops asked. His question was answered a moment later when Rawk Hawk barged into the room, wearing the Champion's Belt with the Crystal Star on it.

"Hey… you're that stupid Dreamer kid, ain't ya?" asked Rawk as he glared at me. "And his loser friend and new pet."

"Hey, don't talk about Koops that way!" Leon glared, marching up to him. "And I'm no one's pet! If you wanna pick with someone, pick with me!"

Rawk chuckled before flicking Leon all the way to the other side of the room.

"Leon!" cried Koops, running to his side.

"What kind of jerk are you, hurting an innocent young Yoshi like that?" I glared at Rawk Hawk. He, in turn, laughed at me.

"I'll give you ALL a double-dosage of that if you don't get out of my way!" he said.

"…you know what?" I asked, summoning the Crystal Sword. "I think you're right. I WILL end it here."

Rawk's eyes widened as I swung the sword down-

Oh don't give me those looks! Just let me finish!

-and hit the Crystal Star on his belt with the tip of the sword.

You see? I was never gonna hurt the guy, just absorb the Crystal Star! Giving him a scare was just, ya know, icing on the cake.

However, we were both surprised (for different reasons, admittedly) when all the Star did was make a little _**ding**_, like something made of plastic being hit by something made of Crystal.

"Huh," I said, stepping back. "That's weird."

"WHAT THE FREAK WAS THAT?" Rawk cried, stepping back with his eyes wide.

"What's weird, Mario?" Koops asked, walking forward to me while holding Leon.

"Ya see… wait, is Leon okay?" I asked.

"WHERE DID THAT SWORD COME FROM?"

"I'm fine Pax," Leon said, shuffling down to his feet. "See? It'll take a lot more than that 'Rawk' head to seriously hurt me."

"Heh, good one," I said, bending down to knuckle touch him.

"WHAT KIND OF MAGIC… THING ARE YOU?"

"So anyway, what were you saying?" Koops asked as I stood up.

"Oh," I said, nodding to Rawk Hawk's champion belt. "Turns out the Crystal Star on that belt is fake."

"What?" Koops asked, taken aback. "No way!"

"GET AWAY FROM ME, SPAWN OF THE UNDERWHERE!"

"I know, so… hold on, there's one thing I gotta do," I said, turning away and walking up to Rawk Hawk. He slowly backed away to a wall, shivering and sweating. I grinned, leaned in so our faces were only an inch apart, and said:

"Boo."

Letting out a high-pitched scream, Rawk Hawk ran out of the room, nearly breaking the door down to get away.

"That should put him in his place for awhile…" I said, patting my hands together as I turned back to my friends, letting the Crystal Sword vanish in a flash of light as I did so. A few Major Leaguers were looking at me with wide eyes, most of them grinning at the scare I gave Rawk Hawk.

"Okay, so… looks like we'll have to wait 'till tomorrow to get back into the fight, huh?" Koops asked.

"Yup," I said, stretching my arm. "So we might as well get some rest while we can."

As I walked over to my comfy bed, Koops and Leon stood awkwardly.

"So… now would be a good time for a scene transition, eh?" asked Leon. "Maybe switch the perspective to the girls or something?"

"Yup," agreed Koops. They continued to stand in awkward silence for a few more moments.

"…Hey, Author!" Leon shouted to the sky.

* * *

_**Enter The Author:**_

* * *

"Huh, what?" I asked, looking back from my webcomics.

"How about a scene transition?" I typed Leon to say. "And while you're at it, STOP PROCRASTINATING!"

"…you aren't even three chapters old and you're already yelling at me to get back on track?" I asked.

"Well it just gets on my nerves!" I typed Leon to say. "You're on Summer Vacation now! You don't have any reason to put off writing your chapters now, so why not just sit down and WRITE for a change?"

"…I can't believe it," I sighed, leaning my face in my hands. "My own written creation is winning an argument against me. Maybe this means I need to see someone? Maybe Mom's right… I have been spending too much time on the computer. Maybe-"

"HEY!" I typed Leon to yell.

"Huh?" I asked. "Oh, right. I'll get you that scene transition and stop procrastinating right after I finish with this website."

"Oh… fine, but make it snappy!" I typed Leon to say.

"Fine, fine…" I muttered, switching over to my Internet Explorer tab to finish with the website I was already on. After the last comic was read, I went back to writing.

* * *

_**Enter Flurrie:**_

* * *

"…Goombella?" I asked, looking down at Goombella's bunk. She moaned and turned around, her blonde hair covering most of her tired face. I couldn't really blame her, it was already quite late.

"What?" she asked groggily.

"Well, uh… what do you think Mario's doing right now?" I asked.

"…sleeping," Goombella said, turning back around. "You should do the same."

"No, I'm serious," I said, floating down to her side. "I think… he's doing something important. I can feel it in my bones."

"Some people would call that stalker-like behavior," Goombella replied curtly.

"Well I just… I thought we ought to check," I said, twirling a lock of hair around my finger.

"Flurrie, I was already in REM when you woke me up," Goombella said, turning to face me. If I could see her face behind that wall of blonde, I probably would have seen a glare. "My brain's still in deep Alpha. I would be no help to you in locating Mario even if he really was doing anything, and even if I did tug along, I wouldn't be able to help if he was doing anything major. So, please, let me sleep."

"…you know," I thought out loud, "you're a contradiction."

"How's that?" Goombella asked, she already turned to sleep.

"You're intelligent and blonde," I stated.

"…okay, look, hair color does NOT have any impact on intelligence!" Goombella snapped, sitting up to face me. "I can't tell you how sick and tired I am with idiots who automatically think, just because I'm a blonde, I DON'T have an IQ of 180 or a GPA of 4.5 or a High-School Diploma at the age of fourteen! And another thing-"

"If you're awake enough to argue, you're awake enough to help me search!" I said cheerfully, pulling Goombella out of bed and brushing her hair back to put her helmet on.

"…oh, you're good," Goombella admitted, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

"Thanks!" I smiled. "By the way… are you REALLY that smart?"

"I was more of a 'spend hours at the library' girl than a 'play with dolls' girl," Goombella retorted.

"…and you're-"

"Say blonde one more time and I will not hesitate to smack you down right here and now," Goombella said.

"My… you're awful grumpy when you haven't gotten your beauty sleep," I said as we quietly left the Locker Room.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Well I wouldn't be so grumpy if someone hadn't forced me awake with an unintelligent bash on all blondes-" I heard Goombella start before we-me, Koops and Leon-bumped into her, along with Flurrie.

"Huh?" I asked. "What are you guys doing awake?"

"You know, we could ask you that very same question," Goombella replied.

"We got an email from this dude named X," Leon yawned.

"He said if we did a few things, we could get information about the Crystal Stars," Koops added.

"…is it really wise to be following instructions from an anonymous person that could very well ask us to burn down the Glitz Pit?" Goombella asked.

"Ya know, I thought the very same thing," I told her. "But it's our only lead, and the instructions seem innocent enough."

"Well, what do we do first?" Flurrie asked.

"Like I tried to tell Koops and Leon," I sighed, "I wanna do this alone. Less people cause less attention, you know."

"And do you honestly think we'd miss out on something like this?" Goombella asked me. "Honestly, I thought you knew me by now."

"Yeah, which is why I didn't want you to find out in the first place," I said.

"Well too bad, you're stuck with me," Goombella said.

"Me too!" Leon said, leaning on my leg in a position that he probably thought made him look cool. "Finally, a piece of action! I only got a taste inside the Pit, and now I want more!"

"I just wanted to make sure Leon stayed alright…" Koops said. "And I… REALLY don't want to go back to that room alone…"

"Okay…" I said. "Goombella and Leon, seeing as I couldn't lose you two to save my life, I guess you can come with me. Koops, could you just… try to make it for about an hour?"

"Oh… fine," sighed Koops.

"And Flurrie-" I began.

"No need to tell me, I'm already gone," Flurrie said. "Hey, make sure not to do anything you may regret later, eh cutie pie?"

With a wink, she turned the corner and left us. As she did this, Koops walked back to the Locker Room.

"Okay…" I said quietly, "now we all need to be REALLY quiet to-"

"What did Flurrie mean by that?" asked Leon.

"…um," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "Er… well… I'm sure Goombella could answer that better than-"

"No way are you pushing this on me," Goombella said.

"Well… let's get going, okay?" I asked, marching ahead. "The email says there's a package behind the café…"

"…why are you two not answering me?" Leon asked as he scurried to catch up to us. "C'mon guys, this isn't fair!"

* * *

"How did we get into the air duct again?" asked Goombella as we crawled through.

"Don't you remember?" I asked. "It was right after we got the key from the package and learned we needed to sneak past the army of ninja kittens!"

"The Author is just getting lazier and lazier with these…" muttered Goombella.

"What?" I asked, turning to face her.

"Nothing…" Goombella shrugged off.

"…you know," I said, "this is happening more and more often. I'm starting to wonder if I'm not just in some sort of book written by myself in an alternate dimension where I'm already turning sixteen and-"

"Hey!" Leon interrupted, pointing down a grate. "Check this out! It looks like the big room that's locked outside!"

"Hey, you're right…" I said, peering down. "What's the point of this room again?"

"Storeroom, by the looks of it," Goombella said.

"Wonder what we can find in here…" I muttered. "Hey… look, there's a locked door there. Maybe that's what this key goes to?"

"Worth a shot," Goombella said. "But the hard part is figuring out how to get down.

"Already taken care of," I said, bending the iron grate apart easily with my index and middle Nightmare fingers.

"Hey Pax… how are you able to do that?" Leon asked.

"Oh right, you don't know yet," I said. "Here, just promise not to scream…"

"Pax," Leon rolled his eyes, "I was JUST BORN, you gotta remember. Everything's new to me, and I doubt that anything you show me will make me-HOLY CRAP!"

Leon jumped back with wide eyes when I pulled off my left glove.

"Sorry…" I muttered. "I know it's a bit much to swallow…"

"That… is… so… COOL!" Leon said. "It has, like, super-human strength and junk?"

"Yup," I nodded. "I learned it can also cast magic, and-"

"Wait… Mario, pull down your sleeve," Goombella said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Just do it," Goombella snapped. I sighed, then pulled down my left sleeve to humor her. When I did, I noticed something really freaky:

My entire forearm was pitch black.

"Holy crap, there's something you don't see every day…" I muttered, staring at it.

"You know… maybe you should lay off the Nightmare Powers," Goombella said, sounding honestly concerned.

"Oh… alright, but we only have a few more battles left to fight," I said, rolling my sleeve back up and re-donning the glove. "Maybe it'll go down in my sleep. And if all else fails, I'll just use the Crystal Sword more often in our next adventure."

"Is that what you call that sword you used to freak Rawk Hawk out?" Leon asked.

"Yeah," I grinned. "Cool, huh-"

"Wait… you freaked that oversized bird out?" Goombella asked, grinning. "Stars, you have SO much to tell me."

"All in due time," I said, looking down. "Now, back to the matter at hand… doesn't look like that far of a jump. I'll go down first and catch you guys."

Three falls, two catches, and a Partridge in a pear-er, a locked door un-locked later, we were in a new room, which…

"Stinks!" Leon groaned. "This place REALLY stinks!"

"Yeah, no kiddin'," I said, climbing over a box. "What's making that smell, any…"

I stopped in front of a large crate, where the smell originated.

"Huh?" I asked, walking forward. "Hold on, I'll bust this-"

"Ahem," Goombella said, glaring at me.

"…oh fine," I sighed, summoning the Crystal Sword and using that to pry the crate open. When it finally opened, we were greeted to a horrid sight:

Bandy Andy and King K both like limp noodles on the ground. I bit back a scream, Leon whimpered, and Goombella made a gagging sound.

"Oh Stars, this is…" she said. "I think I'm gonna…"

"King K…" I said, leaning down. "What happened?"

"Oh… Pax," groaned King K, looking up at me. "Look out… Crystal Star…"

"I… knew it…" Bandy Andy said, laughing weakly. "You so… totally owe me… twenty coins, K."

"Yeah… we'll make the exchange… in the next life…" King K said, giving a weak laugh before grunting in pain.

"Oh hold on guys!" I said. "We'll get you to a hospital, and-"

"No… time for that…" King K said. "Pax… just do me a favor… don't go near… the Arena… when… no… one's… around…"

King K let out a final sigh before closing his eyes. His body glowed, and a moment later, light was all that was left, and that faded away into droplets that floated upward and vanished in the air. The same happened to Bandy Andy not even a minute later.

"No…" I whispered, looking at the spot they were at. "What… what kind of monster could do this?"

"This was… man…" Leon said, walking up to me. "Pax, you okay?"

"I… no, not really…" I said, wiping a tear from my eye. "He was my friend… and I just watched him fade…"

"Mario."

I turned, and was caught off guard as Goombella gave me an armless hug. Blinking, I wrapped my arm around her.

"We're gonna catch that son of a witch who did this," she promised. I closed my eyes, leaning into the hug, which is exactly what I needed at the moment. Leon joined in, and together, the three of us sat in a group hug for a bit, absorbing what we just-

"Hi guys!" Goompa said, riding in on a unicycle. "Have you seen my pet cheese? I'm sure-"

"NOT NOW," Goombella and I both snapped at him with a glare. Leon just blinked at him in curiosity.

"Oh… well fine, I know when I'm not wanted…" sulked Goompa, peddling away.

"That would be ALL THE TIME!" I shouted at him, but he was gone by the time I started.

"…who was-" started Leon.

"Forget it," Goombella said. "Let's just… head back to the Locker rooms, okay?"

"Can we… just hug for a minute longer?" I asked. She looked me in the eyes and smiled.

"Okay… I think we can do that…" she said softly, leaning in. And so, the three of us resumed our hug, feeling protected from whatever horrible force was out there, if only for a moment and in each other's arms.

* * *

**Author's Note: Ah Goompa, the comic-relief master… well, that's my chapter! And now that I'm on Summer vacation and don't have to be up at any time, update time will change from 5:30 AM (EST) to whenever the bloody heck I feel like waking up (EST)! Well, 'till Wednesday, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	26. Chapter 26: Nightmare Rage

**Author's Note: To answer your question, nick (I don't capitalize your name because I figured that's your kinda online name, an uncapitalized name, which I find a pretty orriginal idea. Plus, I already have a friend named Nick, so this just keeps you two easier to seperate in my head), pretty much every single character in the story knows it's just a book… well, except for Pax. ANYWAY, it's time for drama! It's time for action! It's time for RAGE! Here's Chapter 26 everyone! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 26: Nightmare Rage**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"PLEASE!" begged the Magikoopa locked in my Nightmare hand. "HAVE MERCY ON MY SOUL!"

"…what do you guys think?" I asked my friends. "Should we go easy on him?"

"I'M A WOMAN!" the Magikoopa snapped.

"Really?" I asked. "Man, I couldn't tell… sorry, lady."

She fumed in my arm.

"Well… I say you don't finish her off," Goombella said.

"Oh thank you, merciful angel from Heaven-" started the Magikoopa.

"Maybe Leon would like to," Goombella finished. "I mean, he hasn't gotten to pull any finishing blows yet."

"You mean it?" asked Leon with big eyes. "Thanks, Goombella!"

Leon hugged Goombella, which resulted in a collective "D'awwwwww…" from the audience.

"Now WHO WANTS TO SEE SOME BLOOD?" screamed Leon to the audience. They all cheered him on as he used his tongue to wrap up the Magikoopa, fling her into the air, jump up, and pound her into the ground.

"Hoo-doggie!" Grubba cried into the microphone as he walked out to the center of the stage. "Those Magikoopa Masters were no match for our Pax the Dreamer! Let's give them a round of applause, everyone!"

"MARIO!" a rough voice said as heavy stomps sounded throughout the arena. I turned to face…

…HIM.

"Bwa-ha-ha!" Bowser laughed as he shoved Grubba out of the way. "Mario! Finally, you are SO much trouble to track down, you know that?"

His laugh slowed to a stop when he realized I was just glaring at him, shaking with rage.

"Uh… Mario-" started Goombella.

"NOT. NOW," I hissed, my Nightmare claw ready to tear something.

"What?" Bowser asked. "Look, if this is about the princess, I didn't kidnap her this time! Honest!"

"THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE PRINCESS," I snarled. Yes, I actually SNARLED. "THIS IS ABOUT BOMBETTE."

"Bombette?" asked Bowser, tilting his head. "Who… oh yeah, she was that pink Bob-omb, wasn't she?"

"YES," I growled.

"Yeah, I remember her…" Bowser sighed. "Boy, she sure was stupid! I mean, she totally killed herself just to stop me from taking over! It was honorable and crud, but sheesh! Only a total idiot would just kill themselves like that!"

That did it. There was a tiny snap inside my mind as my eyes glazed over with red. I don't really remember what happened after that, just a blur of red…

* * *

_**Enter Nozan:**_

* * *

"Okay Tom," I yawned, walking in and scratching my head, "let me… Tom?"

I saw the kid was sleeping in the chair in front of the monitor. Sighing, I leaned in over the seat and checked the gauge. My eyes widened in horror.

"RED ALERT!" I screamed, hitting the panic button. "RED ALERT!"

"Huh, what?" asked Tom, waking up with a start. "Nozan? What happened?"

"LOOK AT THE GAUGE," I replied, pointing at the spot on the screen. Tom's eyes widened in horror at this.

"Oh my… Nozan, I'm so-"

"Don't apologize, contact Merlin, STAT!" I said, shoving him out of the seat and pushing buttons.

"R-right!" Tom nodded, running away. I was working to keep the fabrics of the Dream strong as I glanced in worry at the gauge that now read:

"**10.80% WARNING: RAGE MODE ENTERED**"

* * *

_**Enter Leon:**_

* * *

"Hey, Pax… are you-" I started. We all jumped back when Pax roared, his clothes ripping apart. His entire body was covered with a net of pitch blackness, his eyes turned crimson red… basically, he looked REALLY scary.

"DIE YOU SCUMBAG!" Pax screamed, leaping at Bowser like a beast. Bowser screamed and ducked down, covering his head with his hands… or claws… or whatever you call them. Pax flew right over him and landed on the ground a bit away. Once there, he growled and ripped a seat out of the audience and threw it at Bowser at the speed of a bullet. This cracked his shell and made him fall down as everyone ran to the exits, screaming. When they hit the exits, however, they were thrown back by a dark barrier.

"What the… WHAT'S GOING ON?" I asked.

"This must be… Nightmare Rage!" gasped Goombella. "I think… he used his Nightmare Powers to create a barrier around the arena so no one can leave until the source of his Rage is…"

She went silent as she watched Pax beat the living crud out of Bowser by throwing him around the arena like a ragdoll.

"What?" I asked. "What has to happen to Pax's target?"

"Bowser'll have to be… eliminated," Goombella said quietly.

"…what?" Koops asked. "I mean… Bowser's a bad guy, but death's a little extreme, isn't it?"

"And Mario can't handle killing anyone!" Goombella interjected. "Leon and I saw his reaction when he watched a friend fade away in his arms, he won't be able to take it if he causes the death of someone, even Bowser!"

"But… look at that power!" Flurrie said. "This would be so hot if it wasn't so scary…"

"Flurrie…" growled Goombella. "NOT the time."

"Right… sorry hun," Flurrie said.

"Flurrie had a point, though…" Koops said. "Mario IS really strong right now! It would take a miracle to save him!"

"Did someone call?" the old Goomba asked, he suddenly standing next to us.

"Goompa!" Goombella said. "Oh, I am SO glad you're here!"

"Hey, Ms. Watermelon says the exact same thing whenever I come around to pick the tomatoes out of her elephant garden!" Goompa laughed, his head quite nearly twisting all the way around.

"…okay, who is this dude and how the heck can he do this?" I asked. "I mean… I saw him last night, but-"

"Look, there's no time!" Goombella said. "Goompa. Do you see Mario over there?"

"Is he under my toilet?" asked Goompa, his tongue sticking out of his grin.

"Just… listen, I need you to do us a favor," Goombella said. "Go crazy. Do whatever it takes to knock Mario out."

Goompa's eyes twinkled.

"Hold on, these things need to be cleaned…" Goompa said, knocking his eyes out, washing the twinkle off them, then popping them back in.

"There we go!" he said, skipping toward Pax with a goofy grin on his face.

"Do you really think this will work?" asked Koops.

"I pray to the Stars it does…" Goombella whispered, closing her eyes. "Please Mario… don't lose yourself in your own rage…"

"Hi there!" Goompa said, skipping up to Pax, who was about to claw through Bowser's guts. He, in turn, whirled around and swiped at Goompa. Instead of hitting him, though, he ended up hitting thin air, Goompa suddenly standing behind him.

"Well that's rude!" Goompa pouted. "Looks like I'll have to teach you manners… Sunshine style!"

"How are you going to do that?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I'll tell you how!" Goompa said, music suddenly playing in the background. "I'll…"

"_Wear Shades!_" Sunglasses suddenly appeared on Goompa's face.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_" a deep voice sung along.

"_Jump around!_" Goompa jumped over an attack from Pax.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Clean up goop!_" Goompa was suddenly watering down a big mess of gooey purple… stuff.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_With FLUDD!_" Goompa nodded back to the thing on his back.

"LIKE IN SUNSHINE," FLUDD sung.

"_Jump over lava!_" Goompa jumped away from Pax, leaping over a pit of lava that was suddenly there.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Ride a boat!_" Goompa and Pax both landed in a pretty little peddle boat.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_IN lava!_" the boat was suddenly in a large body of lava.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Ride a cloud!_" Goompa said, jumping on a passing fluffy cloud to dodge an attack from Pax.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Ride a bird!_" Goompa jumped on a giant bird flying by. Pax jumped up and caught the tail, keeping up with the old Goomba.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Made of sand!_" the bird suddenly shivered, turning into a clump of sand in the shape of a bird, still flying around.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Collect coins!_" Goompa caught eight Red Coins in his mouth as Pax dug up through the sand and crawled toward him.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_And tiny suns!_" Goompa was suddenly holding a small sun with a face on it, flying off the bird, which crashed into a pillar.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_" Pax hit the pillar hard and slowly peeled off, falling down to the ground.

"_Jump on blocks!_" the whole arena suddenly turned into a big empty area full of nothing but multicolored, moving blocks that led up to another mini sun.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Fall down a pit!_" Goompa tripped and knocked Pax into the bottomless chasm, making all of us gasp.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Lose a life!_" a picture of Pax's head suddenly appeared in front of us, the number next to it going down from a 9 to an 8.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Start again!_" Pax was suddenly at the very beginning of the block area.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Race a Hispanic!_" Pax was suddenly at the start of a racetrack.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_In a costume!_" a man in a purple costume ran up next to Pax.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_For a sun!_" the man held up another one of those small suns.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Or lose a life!_" a pit opened under Pax, dropping him in again.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Fight a plant!_" Pax was dumped into a room with a giant man-eating plant.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_" the plant roared and jumped toward Pax. He gave his own roar before jumping up and slicing the monster in half.

"_And giant worm!_" a HUGE worm fell from the ceiling and charged Pax.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_" the worm charged Pax, but he punched it in the face so hard its entire body crumpled up like a crushed soda can.

"_Did I say lava?_"

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Well here's some more!_" a pit of lava opened under Pax, dropping him in.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_" Pax jumped out, yelping like a dog that was just hit.

"_Here's a Thwomp!_" a giant slab of stone with an angry face slammed down on Pax.

"_NOT IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Now you're unconscious!_" Pax really WAS unconscious, the net of darkness retreating back to his left hand.

"_LIKE OUT COLD!_"

"_Have some shades!_" Goompa suddenly threw sunglasses on all of us.

"_LIKE IN SUNSHINE!_"

"_Erased memory!_" Goompa pulled out a tiny stick.

"_MEN IN BLACK!_"

There was a bright flash that our sunglasses covered, and Goompa was gone, leaving behind a crowd looking around in wonder, like they completely forgot everything that happened during the last five minutes.

"…uh, does anyone remember what just happened here?" Grubba asked, looking between Pax and Bowser, both of them unconscious.

"Y-yeah!" Goombella said, jumping to get to the microphone. "It was a powerful battle! Don't you remember? The part where Pax jumped into the air and launched down, knocking both of them out with a blast of power?"

"Uh… of course, lil' lady!" Grubba said. "You insult my memory? I forget nothing!"

Everyone else gave a similar response, eventually breaking out into a cheer.

"C'mon, let's get him rested up…" Goombella said, trying to carry Pax out. Flurrie soon took over, carrying him in her arms out of the arena.

"…what was that?" I asked Goombella as we left. "How did you get everyone to think something happened when it never did?"

"Try too hard to remember, and your memory will trick you," Goombella said. "I don't think anyone there would admit they forgot something that epic, so they made up their own memories so they wouldn't feel forgetful."

"…you're smart," I said, grinning up at her.

"Yeah, I know," Goombella grinned back, but then she turned in worry back to Pax.

"He's gonna be okay!" I told her. "He's a tough dude!"

"Yeah… I hope you're right…" Goombella muttered.

* * *

**Author's Note: Yeah… sorry this wasn't as action-y as I was making it out to be… but on the bright side, there was plenty of Goompa! So, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	27. Chapter 27: Goombella, Nozan and Coron

**Author's Note: *Finishes eating Pretzel Sticks* Ah… man, these things are good! I mean, seriously, if anyone could find a better snack then Pretzel Sticks, I'd like to meet them and slap them in the face for being stupid enough to even consider… uh… wait, you're here? Oh crap, it's the next chapter, isn't it? Well… uh… enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 27: Goombella, Nozan and Coron**_

* * *

_**Excerpt from Goombella's Journal:**_

(Taken from the Night they arrived at Glitzville)

* * *

I'd like to start out saying I am SO glad we moved up to the Major Leagues before night fell. I'm afraid that if I fell asleep in the Minor League locker room, I'd be eaten in my sleep by rats (and not just Ms. Mowz, the little floozy).

I guess I should explain… see, it turns out that the Crystal Star is on the Champion's Belt in the Glitz Pit, which is a big fighting arena for people to watch other people duke it out. We needed the Crystal Star (obviously), and seeing as we couldn't steal it or anything, we decided to join the fight and work our way up to the top to earn the Champion's Belt. Well, we started off on the lowest rank in the Minor League locker room, which was absolutely DISGUSTING. The lockers were broken, the beds had holes in the sheets, and the whole place smelled like someone relieved themselves on every available surface. The only plus was that the other Minor Leaguers were actually friendly and welcomed us with open arms (well… those with arms, anyway).

We spent the better part of two hours fighting our way up the ranks, and soon we were up against the battle that would take us to the Major Leagues. We left to get something to eat, but when we stepped outside, we saw an egg hop around out of the reach of the Hot Dog salesman.

Yes, the egg was actually hopping around, as if it had a mind of its own.

Anyway, we caught it, but seeing as the egg was intelligent, Mario decided not to let it get cooked. So, seeing as the egg had nowhere else to go, it went with us. The battle with the Major Leaguers was… frustrating, seeing as we couldn't even FREAKING DO ANY DAMAGE TO THEM. When we got back to the Locker Room, though, the egg was hatched into a baby Yoshi that Mario soon named Leon. With Leon now in our party, we took a rematch against the Major Leaguers, and Leon managed to use his powers to throw one of them at the other, piercing through their defenses and soundly beating them.

We moved up to the Major Leagues, who's locker room I am now writing this in. The room's cleaner, but the people are colder. It's like they're threatened by how quickly we've climbed the proverbial ladder of success. But, hey, at the rate we're going, we should be done by tomorrow, anyway.

Well, that's about it. I better get some Zs before the fighting tomorrow… geeze, I'm sore in places I didn't even know existed…

* * *

_**Enter Nozan:**_

* * *

I sighed in relief as I watched the meter slowly lower, dropping to eight and a half percent and continuing to drop.

"Sir, I called Merlin!" Tom panted as he ran back in. "I gave him the top priority alert, and-"

"It's fine, Tom," I said, raising a hand to stop him. "It's already been taken care of."

"Oh…" sighed Tom, leaning against a wall. "…sir, I am so, SO sorry for my carelessness. I understand if you want to demote me or…"

"You know Merlin's the only one who has the authority to do that," I told him. "However… this event WILL go on your record."

"Yes sir… of course sir…" Tom bowed his head.

"Now just… go file paperwork or something," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Sir, yes sir!" Tom said, running off. I turned back to the monitor, keeping my sighs inward. This Nightmare that was inside the Dream Keeper was beginning to be a problem. If he placed him in Nightmare Rage once, who's to say he won't…

…wait a minute, was that thing stirring?

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

The images floated before my eyes as I rested in silence. It's happened like this for the past few days… or maybe it's years. I couldn't tell inside the emptiness. My mind couldn't handle the remorse of so much pain I caused, so it… shut down. I was in a comatose state, seeing the Dream Keeper's actions in a dream-like way, occasionally getting some strong emotions or thoughts across, but that was it.

When the Nightmare Rage happened, however… it was more than just dreaming. I stirred, and for a minute I even opened my eyes. When I did, however, I was blinded by a bright light.

"No…" I said to myself, shutting my eyes. "Make the light go away… horrible, horrible thing…"

But I couldn't go back to sleep. At least… not for awhile anyway. While the Nightmare Rage went on, the Dream Keeper's negative emotions flooded with mine. I never knew this Bombette, but I found myself mourning over her death and hating Bowser for causing her death. The anger was just building and building, and soon I was going to explode…

But then… it stopped. I felt peaceful again… the light, the remorse, all that sat outside my eyelids. I didn't want to face them… I hoped I never would… I kept my eyes closed and drifted back into the sleep I've been in…

* * *

_**Excerpt from Goombella's Journal:**_

(Taken from after Pax went into Nightmare Rage)

* * *

Mario's in trouble. He's not well. He's… Stars, I don't know WHAT he is anymore. All I know is that I'm scared. I'm scared of the kind of power he has to be able to freak out like that. I'm scared of what he might do if he ever gets furious again. And… I'm scared he'll never wake up.

We were battling through the ranks again, and Mario was recovering well from seeing King K vanish in his arms. Then, after we battled some Magikoopas, Bowser showed up. If you just saw the look on Mario's face… it's enough to give me nightmares (no pun intended). He was just so… infuriated. Then, Bowser said something about someone named Bombette, and Mario completely snapped. He… transformed into this beast. It was horrible, it was powerful, and it sealed off every exit until it killed Bowser.

Fortunately, Goompa in all his glorified craziness managed to come in at the last minute and subdue Mario. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this, but… thank you, Goompa. Both Bowser and Mario were unconscious, and Bowser was just brushed out as we carried Mario back to the locker room. We didn't get any questions about him entering the rage because Goompa also wiped everyone's memories of the event.

Anyway, I'm sitting here by Mario's bed now, waiting for him to wake up. Everyone else is here too, and none of the male fighters are complaining about Flurrie or me being in their locker room (bunch of perverts, I swear).

I just… I want Mario to wake up. Please Mario… don't leave us yet… don't leave Koops, he looks up to you… don't leave Flurrie, she adores you… don't leave Leon, you're like a father to him…

…and don't leave me.

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, it's sort, I get it! I'm sorry, procrastination just hit full force these past two days! Anyway, come Monday we'll be back to some real… actually, no, Monday isn't… okay, after Monday's chapter, come WEDNESDAY, we'll have action! Severe, mind-blowing, Earth-shattering action! Or, you know, enough action to beat Rawk Hawk. 'Till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	28. Chapter 28: Secret Paths

**Author's Note: Alright, here we-wait, Jacob's getting off Minecraft? Awesome, now I can go and play-**

**Coron: Oi, what about your chapter?**

**Pax: …oi? What are you, British?**

**Coron: Look, are you going to write this chapter or not?**

**Pax: Oh fine, fine…**

* * *

_**Chapter 28-**_

* * *

**Pax: WAIT!**

**Coron: Oh for the love of… what is it now?**

**Pax: …I forgot to tell the reader to enjoy!**

**Coron: Dear Lord…**

**Pax: Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 28: Secret Paths**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Oh…" I moaned, forcing myself to sit up as I rubbed my aching head. "Geeze… what happened there?"

"Mario!"

I turned and found myself attacked in a hug by Goombella.

"You're awake!" she laughed. "Oh thank the Stars you're-"

She froze, then peeled away, coughing awkwardly as she blushed.

"Yeah, well… er, good to see you're awake," she said, looking away from me.

"Glad to see you too," I smiled.

"Pax, you're alive!" Leon said, jumping on me and hugging me.

"Was there any dou-ERT!" I gasped, suddenly caught in Flurrie's death hug.

"Oh Mario, we thought you'd never wake up!" she sobbed, crushing my spine.

"Back… crushed… losing… air… pain…" I gasped.

"Turning… into… pancake…" gasped Leon.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Flurrie said, dropping us to the ground with a thump.

"It's okay… ouch," I said, rubbing my head. I winced and pulled my hand away, as I felt something sharp scratch my head. Turned out I rubbed with my left hand, and my glove was completely destroyed.

"Holy… what happened?" I asked, pulling my sleeve up to cover the claw.

"You… uh…" Koops said, looking down.

"What?" I asked.

"…you entered a Nightmare Rage," Goombella said.

"A what?" I asked.

"You see… when a Nightmare reaches their complete and utter emotional limit…" Goombella said. "They… go into a rage. They create a barrier to prevent anyone from entering or leaving the area, then they do everything in their power to… eliminate the cause of their Rage."

"Oh…" I said. "So… Bowser's-"

"Hurt, but alive," Koops said.

"Crap…" I muttered.

"If it makes ya feel better," Leon said, "he was just brushed right off into the ocean!"

"Serves that thing right…" I said.

"Mario… there's something else," Goombella said. "…who's Bomb-"

"No," I interrupted, standing up. "Just… don't."

I walked over to the door.

"Mario, w-what are you doing?" asked Koops.

"Getting ready for next match," I said.

"What?" Goombella said, running in front of me. "Mario, you're nuts! You can't fight in this condition!"

"Can and will," I said. "I'm not that hurt, and I don't want to stay here for a week longer to totally heal."

"You saw what happened after using your Nightmare Powers so much, though!" Goombella said. "If you think we'll let you fight with it so much, you're nuts!"

"Who said anything about Nightmare Powers?" I asked, summoning the Crystal Sword.

"You're… using a sword?" Leon asked.

"Hey," I shrugged, "most of the people we're facing up against are going to use spikes and such."

"…nice point," Leon said.

"Now c'mon, let's clear though these guys," I said, spinning the sword in my hand as I stepped out of the Locker Room.

* * *

I collapsed on my bed, panting heavily.

"I don't like saying I told you so, but…" Goombella said.

"Hey," I panted, rolling over on my back, "we're up against the champion next."

"Yup, Rawk Hawk," Leon said. "Can't wait! We're gonna teach that overgrown bird a thing or two!"

"Heh… that's my Yoshi," I said, patting Leon on the head.

"Hey, Dreamer."

We all turned our heads to the Security Guard who was standing at the door.

"Time for your match," he said.

"Wait, really?" I asked. "THIS soon?"

"It's a special match," the guard said. "Just follow me."

"Right… er, little help?" I asked, trying to stand up. After Flurrie helped me back to my feet, we followed the guard down the hall…

…in the exact opposite direction as the door to the arena.

"Hey, where-" started Goombella.

"Special match," the guard said. "You're going to a special waiting room."

The Guard opened the door to an old abandoned Minor League locker room and motioned us in. After we stepped in, the guard closed the door behind us. We didn't get suspicious until we heard the clicking of the door locking behind us.

"What?" I asked, trying the door. It was, indeed, locked.

"Alright, time to bust this thing-" I started, pulling back my Nightmare first.

"No!" Goombella said. "Mario, you agreed NOT to use your Nightmare Powers!"

"Grr… but how else are we going to get out of here?" I asked, glaring at the door.

"Well… maybe there's some sort of secret way out of here?" Koops asked.

"You are correct!" Goompa said, he suddenly standing on Koops' head.

"AH!" Koops shouted, jumping back. "How did you DO that?"

"I stand!" Goompa said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He was still standing in the exact spot Koops' head was, floating in the air.

"Goompa, now's NOT the-" I started.

"Mario, wait…" Goombella said. "Lately… Goompa's been HELPING us."

"…you're kidding," I said.

"He's the reason you're still here," Leon said.

"…well," I inhaled, "I never thought I'd see the day… so Goompa, what is it you were going to say again?"

"Purple!" Goompa said. "But enough about cabbages! I'm here to open a secret path for you!"

"Well… great!" I laughed. "Which way?"

Goompa jumped down and kicked a locker open. A portal was wavering inside it.

"…thanks!" I said, stepping forward. "C'mon guys! What could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

"I HATE THAT SENILE GOOMBA!" I screamed, running away from the ghost shooting fire at me. We were in an Underground-like area, full of lava and ghosts and Zombie Pigmen.

"Hey, check out this stone!" Leon said. "It's… glowing!"

"Oink?" a Zombie Pigman asked, poking Leon with a golden sword.

"Hey, watch it buddy!" Leon said, glaring at the Zombie Pigman. "…hey, are those swords really… you know, worth it? It's shiny and all, but… it looks really fragile. I mean, look… hey, can I hold that?"

"Oink," nodded the Zombie Pigman, handing it over.

"Thanks," Leon said, then easily bent the blade into an L with his bare hands. "I mean, look! What kind of damage could something like this do?"

"Oink…" the Zombie Pigman said, looking down in sadness.

"Hey… don't look sad like that," Leon said, patting him on the shoulder. "All you have to do is forge a stronger sword. There's plenty of glowing rock around here… maybe you can make a magic glowing sword out of that?"

"…oink!" the Zombie Pigman said, pulling out a Golden Pickaxe.

"Well… it's a start," sighed Leon. "C'mon, let's go mine for some stuff to make a sword out of-AUGH!"

Leon was picked up and carried off by Flurrie, who was also being chased by ghosts.

"We have to leave, now!" Flurrie said, flying over lava. She passed a pillar with Goombella and Koops, back to back against an army of Zombie Pigmen.

"You just HAD to attack them, didn't you?" asked Koops.

"You totally saw that thing grab me!" Goombella said. "He was asking for it!"

"Actually… I'm pretty sure that one was a girl," Koops said in thought.

"…yeah, I hate this place," Goombella growled. A Zombie Pigman screamed and jumped at them, holding his sword high, when I jumped in, slicing through it. It screamed and dropped to the ground, fading away into smoke and leaving behind a cooked pork chop.

"Hey, Flurrie found the portal!" I said, slicing through Zombie Pigmen as they jumped at us.

"Oh wow, you know, that would be really helpful if we could FREAKIN' GET THERE," Goombella said, calling attention to the fact we were on a pillar surrounded by lava.

"Wait… Mario, how did you get here if this pillar's totally cut off from anything else?" Koops asked. "Come to think of it… how did WE get here?"

At this, Goombella and I both nodded to the cliff above us with a gaping hole.

"…oh," Koops said. "Right."

"And as to how we'll get out…" I said, slicing through a Zombie Pigman. "Well… watch!"

I held out my arms and fell back off the pillar.

"MARIO!" Koops and Goombella cried, looking over the cliff. They saw me fall directly into the Portal, which was hanging below.

"…ladies first?" Koops asked. Goombella sighed and jumped right in, Koops following behind.

* * *

"Well…" Grubba said, turning to Rawk Hawk. "Looks like the Dreamer ain't showin' up."

"Ha!" Rawk said. "Told you, no one wants to mess with the RAWK!"

"Yeah… but you know what's really buggin' me?" asked Grubba.

"Why you're not giving me that Champion Belt right now?" Rawk Hawk asked.

"Naw… why there's a big, glowing portal directly above us," Grubba said, looking up at said portal.

"…huh, where did that come from, any-" started Rawk, but suddenly, the five of us fell through the portal and onto the stage.

"Hi guys," I said, standing up and waving to the audience. "I'm sorry we're late."

"What?" Rawk asked, taking a step back. "How did you-"

"It's a long story involving a senile Goomba," I said, getting into battle position. "Anywho, that doesn't matter! Get ready to be beaten to a pulp!"

My friends gathered by me, getting into battle positions as well.

"Ha!" Rawk said, holding out his hand. "Bring it!

* * *

**Author's Note: Chapters will now update around Noon (EST). Next chapter will be up against Rawk Hawk! Until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	29. Chapter 29: The Hawk Gets Rawked

**Author's Note: You know why I choose to update at Noon? Because I FREAKING WASTE ALL MY TIME RPING WITH MY BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER AND WASTE TIME UNTIL I ONLY HAVE THREE HOURS BEFORE NOON. So… yeah, if anyone out there knows a cure for procrastination, please, I beg you, tell me. Well, enough of that, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 29: The Hawk Gets Rawked**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"You are gonna get RAWKED!" Rawk said. "You shoulda just stayed locked in that room where you were safe!"

"Wait a minute…" Goombella said. "You mean YOU'RE the one who locked us in that room?"

"Heck yeah!" Rawk said. "I'm also the one who sent you that poisoned cake, losers! When you get close to the Hawk, you get-"

"Wait," I said. "WHAT cake?"

"…you didn't get the cake?" Rawk asked.

* * *

_**Flashback!**_

* * *

"_Cake for the Dreamer…" started the guard, seeing I was nowhere in the locker room. "Oh, must be gone for the moment. I'll just leave it here for him."_

_He set the cake down on my bunk and left silently. A Koopa in a blue shell then walked up to it, licking his lips._

"_Ooh, this looks yummy…" he said. "Bet that Dreamer won't mind if I take a bite…"_

_A little bit after that, we returned from our fight to see my bunk had some crumbs on it, and the Koopa lay paralyzed on the ground, twitching and foaming at the mouth._

"…_is he okay?" Koops asked._

"_Seeing as he's twitching and foaming, I'm just gonna take a wild guess and say no," Leon replied._

"_Hold on, I'm gonna go get some medical help for the poor guy," I said, rushing out._

* * *

_**End Flashback!**_

* * *

"…oh," I said. "Well THAT certainly explains a lot."

"Explains what?" asked Goombella.

"…never mind," I shook my head, getting into battle position. "Okay Rawk, YOU'RE the one about to get HAWKED!"

"…uh, Mario?" Flurrie tapped my shoulder. "It's the Hawk is going to get… Rawked."

"…oh, I said it the other way around, didn't I?" I asked.

"Yeah," Goombella said, rolling her eyes. "Smooth."

"Hey!" I complained. "I just got my tongue tied, okay?'

"I can see," Goombella said. "…uh, Mario-"

"Hey, if you want, I can totally do that again and get it RIGHT this time!" I told her.

"Well that's great and all, but Mario-" began Goombella.

"Here, I'll show you!" I said, turning back to Rawk. "Hey Hawk, you're about to get-"

My face seemed to be like a magnet, and Rawk's boots were metal. Big metal. Big, heavy metal with the ability to make my entire skull feel like it was crushed to dust as it was hit. I flew back and landed on my back on the other side of the stage.

"If you had let me FINISH, I would have told you Rawk Hawk was coming to attack you!" Goombella said, running to my side. "So Mario, what have we learned today?"

"Never to get near the boots of a professional fighter?" I asked, sitting up and trying to filter the pain out enough so motor functions could come back.

"Close," Goombella said. "The moral is that you should ALWAYS let the Goomba Girl finish her sentences. More often than not, she's got something important to tell you."

"Alright, prepare to get-" started Rawk, running toward me.

"Go ahead," Leon interrupted, standing in Rawk's path with his tiny fists on his tiny hips. "Say Rawked one more time. I DARE you. I DOUBLE dare you, blankity blank! Say Rawked one. More. Time."

"…Rawked," Rawk sneered. "What are you gonna do about it, little-AUGH!"

Rawk found himself entwined in Leon's incredibly long tongue, then flung around the place like a rag doll tied up at the end of the rope while the other end is tied to a helicopter blade in motion.

"Ahm howee, bib oo wamp a hurm?" asked Leon to us.

"Nah," I said, standing up and shaking my head clear. "I'm cool."

"Ditto," Goombella nodded.

"I'm perfectly satisfied just watching," Koops said.

"You can mess him up all you like," Flurrie said.

"Oh!" I suddenly said, holding out my hands. "Wait, wait! I got an idea! Everyone, huddle!"

We all huddled around Leon and whispered our plan, Rawk still being flung around and screaming.

"…okay, got it?" I asked. Everyone else gave a simultaneous nod.

"Alright, let's DO THIS THING!" I pumped my fist and jumped back, holding the Crystal Sword at the ready. Leon nodded and ran forward, jumped in the air, and slammed his head down, jammin' to rock music style. This caused his tongue to slam down along with Rawk, leaving him sprawled on the ground as Leon unwrapped his tongue from him and jumped back. As Rawk shakily got back up, Flurrie picked up Koops, who had hid himself in the shell, spun around very quickly, then released, knocking Koops at high speed into Rawk. This, combined with the faulty physics of both the Paper Mario games and quite possibly because Goompa was somewhere in the audience, smacked both Rawk and Koops high into the air. Goombella ran to Flurrie and was thrown into the air, where upon she kicked Koops' shell and smacked him into Rawk's back, flinging him higher. As this was happening, Leon wrapped his tongue around me and spun me around quickly before letting go and flinging me into the air, above Rawk. As he was thrown up by the second Koops blast, I turned down and gave a cry as we both slammed down to the ground, the flat of my blade on his skull. There was a loud SMACK as we hit the ground, and Rawk was unconscious at my feet.

"…the Hawk's wings have just been clipped!" I said, raising my sword in a victorious pose.

"Dear Stars, that's gotta be the worst pun…" began Goombella, but she was drowned out in the sound of the hundreds of people watching cheering at the tops of their voices. She was smirking as she said this, however, and stood by my side along with Koops, Flurrie and Leon as the crowd cried out:

"GOOMBELLA! GOOMBELLA!"

"KOOPS! KOOPS! KOOPS! KOOPS!"

"FLU-RRIE! FLU-RRIE!"

"LE-ON! LE-ON!"

And, my personal favorite…

"PAX THE DREAMER! PAX THE DREAMER!"

* * *

I bet you thought the chapter was over here now, didja? Well you would have thought wrong. Granted, we DID get the Champion Belt, and we DID get to hang out in our new Champion Room with plush carpets and a bed that was so soft I could have pulled a Rip Van Wrinkle with it easily, but…

"The Crystal Star's a FAKE?" asked Goombella. "Waddaya mean it's fake? We've spent this whole time trying to GET it!"

"Yeah, well…" Koops said. "Um… we learned about the star being fake sometime late yesterday when Rawk Hawk barged in, we just… never got around to telling you two. Sorry…"

"Well, what's done is done," Flurrie said. "I just wish I knew where the REAL Crystal Star was."

"You and me both," I said, lying on the bed and watching the ceiling. "But if we wanna find it, now that we're champs, we'll have plenty of time to look. It's not like it's exact location is going to be given to us via Email."

It was about then my Mailbox SP went off.

"Eh?" I asked as I opened it. Someone with a real capitalization problem wrote me an Email:

"cRaWl ThRoUgH tHe AiR vEnT iF yOu WaNt To FiNd ThE cRyStAl StAr

-X"

"Dear GOD, there's gotta be a law against butchering capitalization like that!" I said, showing it to my friends.

"Mario, please, focus for a minute," Goombella said. "Whoever this X person is apparently wants us to find the Crystal Star."

"So… we gotta crawl through that?" asked Leon, looking at the nearby air vent in the wall. For some unexplainable reason, it was big enough for all of us, Flurrie included (not a fat joke, I'm sorry Flurrie) to easily fit through.

"I wouldn't say 'crawl' so much as 'briskly walk with back hunched over'," I said as I pried the grate open with my sword. "Let's-a go."

* * *

The air vent, also for some unexplainable reason, was more of a narrow passage made of metal rather than an air vent. There were no fans, no heaters… in fact, there were no systems for controlling air temperature at all. It was just a straight shot through a linear hallway.

Of course, as Koops pointed out, this made it easier on us, as we didn't have to trek through a whole maze of air ducts…

Anyway, when we reached the end, we saw Grubba sitting at his desk, putting a piece of paper away into his desk.

"That Dreamer kid… he's good…" he muttered to himself. "Too good… I might have to disappear him soon…"

He sighed and shook his head, walking around the desk.

"Why do good fighters have to get their noses into my business?" he asked himself. "First King K and Bandy Andy caught me tinkerin' with THAT, so I had to drain them, and now this Dreamer is lookin' for the Crystal Star…"

He paused in front of a mirror and posed, showing off his muscles.

"But I guess that's the price people have gotta pay to keep this bod lookin' young and toned!" he smirked walking out of the room.

"…okay, wow," Goombella said. "What a narcissist!"

"So he's the one who drained King K and Bandy Andy…" I muttered. "That jerk! They were my friends!"

I sighed as I slid back and kicked the grate out. The five of us slid out and looked around at the room. Goombella and I seemed to have the exact same thought as we went to the desk.

"Hey Goombella," I said, opening the desk and pulling out the paper Grubba put in a moment before, "I've been meaning to ask, how do you Goombas write or open things and stuff without hands? I mean, it would just be unsanitary to open doorknobs with your mouths all the time, and I don't think your feet can be THAT manipulatable."

"Okay, one, I'm pretty sure 'manipulatable' isn't a real word," Goombella said. "And two, I actually get that question asked a lot. The answer's quite simple, really. You see-"

"Holy crap!" I said in surprise.

"What?" Leon asked, rushing over and jumping to look over my shoulder as everyone gathered around me. "What is it, Pax?"

"This… this machine!" I said. "It's inhuman! It… well, according to these drawings, it uses the power of the Crystal Star to drain the very essence of a person and infuse them into someone!"

"So Grubba's got the Crystal Star!" Flurrie said.

"Well, we pretty much already knew that from that monologue he gave a minute ago…" Goombella said. "But yeah, it's still horrible! That monster's gonna get what's comin' to him soon…"

"And that something coming to him is going to be a little spicy!" I said. Everyone was silent as they stared at me.

"…what?" I asked with a shrug. "Italian food is spicy, get it?"

"Mario…" sighed Goombella. "PLEASE stop with the puns. They are not your forte."

"I gotta agree with the little lady, that was a pretty bad pun," nodded Grubba as he entered the room. We all turned to glare at him.

"…oh crud, what's that paper you got in your hand Dreamer?" asked Grubba.

"Nothing much, just the diagram of your ENERGY SUCKING MACHINE," I glared.

"Oh, well…" Grubba gulped. "You see, I can explain that…"

"Enlighten us," Goombella said.

"…YOIP!" Grubba turned around and dashed away.

"Quick, after him!" I said, rushing after Grubba. My friends followed close behind, ready to face whatever this madman had to throw at us.

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, I'm sorry I had to throw this chapter in late along with today's chapter, but… yeah, anyway, hope you liked it, and next chapter's comin' within the hour or so! ...maybe. I hope.**


	30. Chapter 30: Grubba's Machine

**Author's Note: My challenge, and I have no choice but to accept it, is to write an epic finishing chapter with action and closer within the next… two hours. Well… here I go!**

* * *

_**Chapter 30: Grubba's Power Sucking Machine**_

* * *

We barged our way into the Arena after Grubba. It was closing time, so no one else was there (except, you know, us and Grubba). It seemed eerily quiet as we dashed onto the arena, where Grubba was already standing.

"So," Grubba said, "looks like you found me out, son. I gotta congratulate ya, not many fighters even make it this far."

"Cut the crap!" I said. "You're draining the energy of people! Real, live people with families and friends!"

"Oh boo-hoo," Grubba rolled his eyes. "Poor widdle them. Boy, let me tell you something… when you get into this biz, no one cares about no one but themselves. The best ladders are made of people, I say. 'Sides, it don't matter none what happens to them so long as I get to live forever!"

He pulled out a remote and pushed a button. Everything shook, and the arena opened up in the center. From it came a large machine with the Crystal Star on the top. It was spinning on a platform, glowing with energy that was being drawn out with tubes on the side of the machine.

"With this puppy," Grubba said as he stepped into the machine, "I can draw on the energy of fighters to keep myself looking young and fit!"

"Why am I reminded of the Seven Deadly Sins…" I muttered to myself.

"But that's… that's crazy!" Koops said. "You can't cheat death like that! It's unnatural!"

"It's winning is what it is," sneered Grubba as he hit a button. "Now, I can unleash the stored power in the star to turn myself into… MACHO GRUBBA!"

* * *

_**Enter Edwin:**_

* * *

"Yes!" I said to myself as I put the finishing touches on my Cold Fusion. "Finally! I have finished it yet again! And now, being under a stage in a floating city, there's no way this can be destroyed! Unless, of course, some kind of machine was drawing upon and magnifying the power of an object of power or something. If that were the case, the residual power surge being emitted from it would cause the Cold Fusion to overload and basically self-destruct… but what are the chances of that happening?"

Suddenly, for some odd reason, the Cold Fusion glowed and shook violently, looking ready to explode.

"HIT THE DECK!" I cried, jumping behind a barrier. There was an explosion, and when I raised my head to look, I saw the Cold Fusion completely obliterated.

"…NOOOOOOOOOOO!" I cried into the air, trying to pull my hair out of my skull. "IT'S NOT FAIR! IT'S NOT FREAKIN' FAIR!"

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…okay, seriously, did anyone else hear that?" I paused.

"Actually… yeah," Goombella said. "Like some broken-hearted man just screamed no-WHOA!"

The rest of us gave similar screams and jumped back as Grubba glowed and grew, doubling in size and turning orange in contrast to his usual blue.

"Alright Dreamer!" Macho Grubba said, getting into battle position. "It's time for you to go to sleep… for GOOD!"

"…okay, please, would every just stop using these terrible one-liners?" asked Goombella. "I mean… Stars, this is REALLY getting old."

Macho Grubba roared and threw a punch down at us. We managed to roll out of the way in time, but the spot he punched left a crater.

"It's Marilyn all over again…" muttered Goombella.

"Alright…" I clenched my Nightmare fist. "Let's take this thing out!"

"Mario…" Flurrie said. "You told us you wouldn't…"

"Oh fine, fine…" I muttered, moving my left arm back and holding my right arm forward with the sword clenched in hand.

Leon ran forward and jumped into the air, shooting his tongue out at Macho Grubba. He, in turn, grabbed Leon's tongue in his hand, spun him over-head, and flung him back out.

"LEON!" Koops ran back, jumping into his shell to gain speed, and flipped into the air. He got out of his shell and caught Leon in his arms.

"Gotcha!" he said as he grabbed Leon, falling back and landing safely on his shell.

"Phew… thanks, Koops," Leon said, jumping off and getting back into battle position. "Guess my signature move's out, huh?"

I ran forward right around then and swung my sword at Macho Grubba. He leaned down and slammed his hands together, catching the flats of the blade. He spun it out of my hand and threw it at Flurrie. I managed to regain myself and hold out my hand to the sword, making it disappear from Flurrie and reappear in my hand in a flash of light.

"Phew…" sighed Flurrie in relief. Goombella was looking all around the arena, her eyes falling on Macho Grubba and the machine powered by the Crystal Star.

"…hey oldie!" cried Goombella, running in front of Macho Grubba. "I'm surprised you can managed to stand upright without a cane!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" shouted Macho Grubba, looking down at her.

"What, you're so old you need a hearing aid, too?" Goombella insulted. Macho Grubba screamed and slammed his gigantic foot down at Goombella. She jumped out of the way toward the machine.

"That's right, stupid, just keep following me…" she muttered, then louder she said "Wow, maybe you should get some glasses, fossil!"

Macho Grubba continued to aim attacks toward her, until she got close to the Machine. He paused and just gave Goombella a look.

"…okay little lass, what do you think, I was born yesterday?" he asked. "I see what you're trying to make me do, and it's not gonna work. I'm not a stupid monster, so why-AUGH!"

He didn't notice as I jumped and stabbed him in the back with my sword. I jumped off and glared up as the sword glowed with light. I saw the pitch black heart form in his center, like what happened in our battle with Hooktail…

…then, the Crystal Star flashed and made the Crystal Sword fly out of his back.

"Augh, Nut Bunnies!" I said as I warped the sword back into my hand. "Looks like I'll have to take that thing down!"

I ran forward and jumped to hit the Crystal Star with my sword, but was swatted back by Macho Grubba.

"Mario!" Goombella ran forward, where upon she was grabbed in Macho Grubba's gigantic hand.

"Hey!" she struggled in his grip. "Let me go!"

"What was that you said about being old earlier?" Macho Grubba laughed. His laugh turned to a shout when Goombella bit his hand with all her might.

"Why you little…" Macho Grubba squeezed his grip, causing Goombella to cry out in pain. "Let's see what you look like crushed like a soda can!"

I got up on my knees and watched as he did this with wide eyes. Flurrie ran up to punch him, but he just swatted her away with a hand. The same went for both Koops and Leon.

"Grrrr…." I closed my eyes, shaking with anger.

_If Crystal won't hurt him… I'll use Nightmares!_

I shot my eyes open and jumped up, holding out my left arm and screaming. Suddenly, my entire left sleeve ripped apart, revealing my bare arm. It, in turn, was covered in a net of darkness, which formed together and turned my entire arm pitch black before transforming it into a blade. Macho Grubba stared at me with wide eyes of shock as I slashed through him with the powers of darkness. He screamed as it left behind a burn and dropped Goombella. I fell to my feet and ran forward, catching Goombella in my right arm (the Crystal Sword vanished during the transformation).

"Are you okay?" I asked her, placing her down.

"Yeah… Mario, you told us-" she started.

"I think it was worth it to save your life!" I snapped.

"What if the same thing that happened with Bowser happens again?" she retorted.

"I… oh, we'll talk about this later!" I huffed, turning back to Macho Grubba, feeling kind of insulted Goombella wasn't more grateful that I saved her life.

"Oh, I KNOW you didn't just turn your back to me!" Goombella said as I jumped toward Macho Grubba. "Augh, that idiot's SO going to get it when this battle's over…"

I flipped through the air and slashed down at Macho Grubba. He was sliced and staggered back. I landed on my feet and dashed forward, slashing up. Every single slash I made in him gave him a black burn mark as dark smoke came out, and soon his entire body was covered in said burn marks. I gave one last stab, making him stagger back and fall on his back.

"This… isn't… OVER!" Macho Grubba held out his hands, and the Crystal Star glowed once again, filling his body with power.

"Oh no you… er…" I started, trying to summon the Crystal Sword. My Nightmare Blade seemed to be resisting it, bubbling a bit as the sword began to spark in my hand before fading again.

"Okay, no problem…" I said, turning back to my Nightmare Blade. "I'll just revert this, and…"

Nope. The blade wouldn't turn back to a hand.

"What… okay, this is starting to freak me out!" I said, shaking my arm.

"I'd hate to say I told ya so, but…" Goombella started as Macho Grubba climbed back to his feet.

"I'll hold him back!" I said, giving up on dispelling the Nightmare Blade. "You find a way to shut down the machine!"

"Well, alright then," Goombella said, stepping back as I continued to swipe at Macho Grubba. "Koops, Leon, Flurrie!"

As they were talking, I swiped Macho Grubba off his feet and stabbed him into the ground. He screamed as the darkness burnt his flesh, but the glowing Crystal Star continued to heal it.

"F… face it, Dreamer," sneered Macho Grubba. "You c-can't win!"

"I wouldn't bet on it, grandpa!" Goombella shouted. "Now!"

Leon, who's tongue was wrapped around Koops' shell, spun and launched him into the air. Goombella jumped over Flurrie, who blasted her into the air with a blast of wind. Once airborne, she turned and kicked Koops' shell into the Crystal Star. There was a loud CRACK! as the Crystal Star broke free of the hold the machine had on it and fell out onto the ground.

"NO!" cried Macho Grubba as his energy source faded, his form faltering. He already had energy within him, but he had nothing to exchange with, so he was left unstable.

"Mario, catch!" Flurrie picked up and threw the Crystal Star at me. I caught it with the tip of my Nightmare Blade, and dear GOD it hurt! After a few moments of agonizing pain, however, the blade reverted to a Nightmare Claw. Grinning, I threw the star into the air, summoned the sword, and slashed it as it fell back to Earth. It shattered, and in a blast of light, was sucked into the Crystal Sword.

"Now…" I spun around and stabbed the Crystal Sword into his shoulder. He screamed as his body glowed, a pitch black heart appearing at his center again.

"N-no!" Grubba begged. "Don't destroy the Darkness!"

"Funny," I said. "A minute ago, you were relying on the light, now you're all for-"

"It's the only thing holding me together!" Grubba said. "If you destroy it, I'll have nothing left!"

I held my foot over his chest.

"Grubba," I glared, "you've been living off the energy of innocent people you suck the energy out of just so you can live forever. You became nothing the first time you started up that machine."

I slammed my foot down, shattering the black heart. He gasped as a black orb came out and was absorbed into my hand.

"Woo!" I stepped back, shaking my head. "STILL lovin' that rush!"

The hole Grubba's heart was a moment ago was full of light, shooting out orbs that transformed into people. Soon, the entire arena was full of people, scratching their heads in confusion.

"Whoa…" King K said shakily. "I feel… weird…"

"Tell me about it…" Bandy Andy said. "…hey, isn't that Prince Mush?"

A toad in a fighting outfit looked around in confusion.

"I feel like I've been sleeping for years…" he muttered. "What happened?"

"No…" Grubba was no longer a strong man, he was a pathetic shell. His body was fading away into nothingness, and he truly looked old.

"Grr… Dreamer…" he cursed, swiping his fist at me. It broke upon contact, fading into nothingness. He stared in shock at his arm as it slowly faded. When he was nothing but a torso and head, he glared up at me with pure hatred etched on his eyes.

"Damn… you… Pax…" he cursed, his voice echoing as he faded away into nothing. The only proof that Grubba was there was the powered-down machine and the fighters standing around the Arena.

"…is Grubba dead?" King K asked.

"He died a long time ago," a new voice said. "He just now passed on from this world."

We turned to see Jolene walk in, adjusting her glasses.

"Jolene?" asked Koops.

"You can also call me X," Jolene said, walking onto the arena. "Grubba… he's been around for as long as I can remember. I'm surprised no one found out until now…"

She shook her head and sighed.

"My brother… Prince Mush, you call him, he joined years ago," she said. "One day, he disappeared. No one could explain why. So… I went undercover and got a job here to find out. One day, I saw Grubba sucking the energy out of a fighter… and I almost gave up hope. But then… you showed up and started clearing your way through the ranks. I thought… if anyone could help, you could. So, I sent you the Emails signed X, helped you discover the truths of the arena. And now…"

"Sis?" Prince Mush pushed his way through the fighters and in front of Jolene. "Is that…"

"Mush!" Jolene wrapped him in a hug. "Oh thank the Stars… I thought I'd never see you again…"

"Yeah, uh… could you explain what happened, by the way?" asked Prince Mush.

"I'll… I'll tell you later," Jolene said, tearing up. "Dreamer… no, Mario… thank you, thank all of you. You saved so many people…"

"Hey," I shrugged, "it's no problem."

I held up the Crystal Sword above my head.

"Three down!" I said as everyone gathered around me. "Well, looks like we've-ah!"

I found myself lifted above the heads of the fighters and carried out as they cheered, same as Goombella, Koops, and Leon (Flurrie… okay, let's not hinder on that fact).

"Mario?" I turned to see Goombella glaring at me.

"…okay," I sighed, bowing my head. "I'm sorry for using the Nightmare Powers like that. I shouldn't have-"

"No, I'm sorry," Goombella said. "You saved my life."

"By using the powers."

"But you saved me!"

"But I broke my word!"

"But-"

"Okay, okay!" Leon said. "You're both sorry, you both forgive each other, and now we're being treated as heroes! Let's move on!"

"…the kid's right," I smiled, offering a hand. "Friends?"

"Friends," agreed Goombella with a smile, meeting my hand with a foot, as she had no hand to offer.

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, this chapter turned out better than I thought… 'till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	31. Chapter 31: Three Sides, Ark 3

**Author's Note: You know, I don't have to have an Author's Note every single ding-dang-darn chapter! In fact, this chapter, I just won't have any at all, see how you react! Ha! …wait a minute, I just wrote an Author's Note right now saying that, didn't I? Darnit, you guys are good! Aw well… enjoy, at least!**

* * *

_**Chapter 31: Three Sides, Ark 3**_

* * *

_**Enter Peach:**_

* * *

I stepped into TEC's room calmly, actually glad to be called in by him after a whole day of… well, basically boredom. I mean, at least when TEC talks with me it gives me someone to chat with and takes my mind off things.

"Hello TEC," I greeted as I stepped in, looking up at the large monitor on the wall. "What do you want to do today? Talk about love? Dance some more?"

"PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said, "I WOULD LIKE YOU TO ASK SIR GROUDUS SOMETHING."

This made me snap my head to attention, gasping a bit despite myself.

"Excuse me, I don't think I heard that right…" I said. "Did you say you want me to go up and ASK the creepy guy who locked me here in the first place something?"

"PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said, "THERE IS ONE THING THAT I MUST KNOW. I REQUIRE YOU TO ASK SIR GRODUS ABOUT THIS."

"But… TEC, you're the main computer," I said. "Don't you know everything in this place?"

"I ONLY KNOW WHAT'S IMPUT TO MY CPU," TEC explained.

"Oh…" I said. "So… what is it you want me to ask him? And how will I do it if, when I'm caught, I'll be sent back to my room?"

"I HAVE A PLAN FOR BOTH," TEC said. "LISTEN CAREFULLY…"

* * *

"…so then the two women, see? They took this cup, and-" started one X-Naut.

"Okay, EW!" gagged his friend. "Stop right there! I've seen it, don't remind me! It was DISGUSTING!"

"Aw… I liked it," the first said as they hung up their Hazmat suits and walked out.

"…you need help," I heard the other said before the door closed. There was no one else inside the locker room. I opened the grate and glided down. TEC had opened a path for me through the air vents, leading me to the X-Naut Locker Room.

"Okay…" I said, opening a locker. "Ah, there you are…"

I pulled out the X-Naut outfit, trying not to sniff it, as I knew it was going to stink. I dragged it over to a changing booth and started to change when I caught sight of some writing on the wall.

"…the cake is a lie?" I asked in confusion. "What cake? Why is it a lie?"

"I THINK I CAN ANSWER THAT QUESTION," TEC said. "YOU SEE, A MONTH AGO, WE HAD AN EMPLOYEE CHALLENGE, AND THE PRIZE WAS A CAKE. IT TURNED OUT, HOWEVER, THERE WAS NO CAKE AT ALL, SO THE WINNER OF THE CHALLENGE WAS MET WITH BITTER DISSAPOINTMENT. A FEW OF OUR SOLDIERS WENT A LITTLE CRAZY AFTER THAT, AS THE CHALLENGES WERE… EXTREME."

"…well," I sighed, "it's better than anything Bowser could come up with, at least."

I finally walked out of the booth, shoved into the tiny X-Naut outfit. I was right: It STUNK.

"Ew…" I said to myself as I walked on. "This is disgusting… but at least I look like one of them now."

* * *

"Er… Sir Grodus… sir?" I asked, trying to make my voice as deep as possible.

"Hm?" Grodus turned to face me. "Yes, what is it?"

"Er… well, I wanted to ask…" I said nervously.

"Out with it!" barked Grodus. "…wait, your voice sounds a bit… off, soldier."

I inwardly gulped.

"Just a… sore throat sir," I said, forcing my voice deeper. It wasn't easy.

"Oh, would you like a throat lozenge?" asked Grodus, reaching into his pocket. "I may have some down here with-wait, what am I saying? You! Soldier! What is it?"

"Well… I wanted to ask, what are we to do with Princess Peach?" I asked.

"Oh," Grodus said. "Too stupid to remember simple commands? Fine, I'll remind you. She is not to come to harm, do you hear me?"

"But… but sir, er… WHY can't we hurt her?" I asked. This question was met with an irritated growl by the guy.

"Remember your place!" he lashed. "You're not here to ask questions, you're here to do as I say! You grunts do what I say, we all take over the world, THAT is how it all works! Is that clear?"

"I-"

"I SAID IS THAT CLEAR?"

"S-sir, yes sir!" I saluted quickly. "I-I'll be going now… sir… Grodus sir… er…"

I rushed out, panting. I regretted it a moment later when I could almost TASTE the stench inside that horrible outfit. I made a beeline toward the Locker Room, ready to get out of that terrible suit.

* * *

"WHAT DID YOU-" TEC started.

"TEC!" I said, stomping in. I was partly disgusted to have the sweat of the inside of that suit on me, partly angry. "You terrible computer! You're trying to take over the world?"

"IT IS WHAT I WAS PROGRAMMED TO DO," TEC said simply.

"But taking over the whole world… that's terrible!" I said.

"PRINCESS PEACH… DO YOU LIKE THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN?" TEC asked. "THERE IS SO MUCH WAR, FAMINE, PAIN. IF WE TAKE OVER AND FORCE THINGS TO BE RIGHT, THEN WE CAN MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE."

"Well of course I like the world!" I replied. "I mean, it's not perfect, but then what is? As bad as the world can be at times, it still has it's good parts!"

"…" TEC was silent for a moment before finally saying "I… NEED SOME TIME TO PROCESS THIS INFORMATION. PRINCESS PEACH, YOU MAY AGAIN USE THE EMAIL."

"Right…" after typing up my email and hitting send, I walked back to the door. I paused and took a look back at TEC before turning and walking back to my room.

"GOODNIGHT, PRINCESS PEACH," TEC's voice said as the lights in the room turned off and the door closed.

* * *

_**Enter Bowser:**_

* * *

Okay, after I totally beat Mario's butt in the Glitz Pit and decided to take a nice swim, the Hag told me another Crystal Star was in a black and white forest, so we took off! We walked into a tree, full of tiny creatures that ran in fear from me like everyone always does! Ha, bow down to my power, puny creatures! Puny… yeah, I'll call you Punies! I bet that's the most original idea ever! Well, we kept looking until we got to an old hag of a Puny. My old hag got into a total hag fight with the Puny hag! Oh, it was awesome! Well, after that fight, I asked that hag where the Crystal Star was, and she told me some weirdo named Marty-O took it to save Princess Pinch. I had NO idea what she was talking about, but apparently Kammy figured something out from her code language and told me that Mario took the Crystal Star to save Princess Peach! Oh, that greedy jerk! First treasure, then princesses… he just wants it all to himself! Well it all belongs to ME! I'M the one who deserves everything! I'm a King! I am SO gonna take it all for myself!

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Thank you so much for everything you've done for us…" Jolene said as we boarded the blimp home.

"Yeah!" King K said. "You, my Dreamer buddy, have inspired me to fight harder! I'm gonna just rise up through the ranks, I know it!"

"Not if I beat ya too it," Bandy Andy said.

"Oh, you think you can take me?" asked King K, getting into a joking competitive mode.

"I KNOW it!" Bandy Andy smirked.

"Beat ya to the arena!" they said simultaneously, racing to the pit. I smiled and shook my head at the sight.

"Dreamer…" Rawk Hawk said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm… sorry for breaking the rules. I promise, from now on, I'll work harder and not play dirty! Just know though, watch out if you ever come back! You'll face the RAAAAAWK!"

"Good to know," I waved at him.

"Dreamer… I'm sorry, Mario…" Jolene said, taking my hand and shaking it. "Thank you for bringing back my brother… you don't know how much this means to me. If there's anything I can do to repay you…"

"Well, there is one thing," I said. "…take over as runner of the Glitz Pit."

"…what?" asked Jolene, blinking.

"You know everything about the place," I reasoned. "You're the best one for this job, I'm sure of it."

"Well…" Jolene sighed, smiling a bit. "I have grown to this place… okay Mario, it's a deal."

After a final shake, I waved as I stepped inside the blimp. I settled into a seat and watched the floating city vanish in the distance, along with all my new friends.

"…Mario?" asked Goombella.

"Yeah?" I turned my head to face her.

"I, uh…" she blushed and looked at her feet. "You're… a really nice guy. Like, REALLY nice."

I blinked in surprise by this.

"Uh… well, thanks?" I said. She turned back to me and opened her mouth, but was interrupted by Flurrie.

"I completely agree," she said. "Mario hun, you are SUCH a sweet pie! And I'll tell you, I like my men sweet…"

She winked before turning around and sitting back down in her seat.

"…okay then," I said, settling back into my seat. "You were saying, Goombella?"

"…never mind," muttered Goombella, looking away. I noticed she was still blushing, but I shrugged it off.

Meanwhile, in another seat, Leon was staring out the window.

"Hey Koops?" he asked.

"Hm?" replied the Koopa.

"What's the rest of the world like?" Leon questioned.

"…um," started Koops, not really knowing what to say. "Well… uh, you'll get different answers from different people… but personally, I think the world's awesome. It has it's downsides, but overall, it's really nice."

"Really?" asked Leon.

"Really," nodded Koops.

* * *

"…REALLY?" repeated Leon, staring in disgust at the sewers we passed through.

"Okay," Koops said, "to be fair, these are sewers. You can't judge the whole world based on these."

"Besides," I said as I stepped through the corridor to the chamber of the Thousand Year Door, "you haven't seen the best part."

"…wow," breathed Leon, looking at awe up at the Thousand Year Door. "That thing is… wow."

"Yeah, I know," I nodded, hopping onto the pillar and holding out both the map and the sword. "You might wanna shield your eyes."

One magical blast of light later, our map was pointing to a very gloomy looking area bathed in twilight.

"Okay," I said, "either one of us is going to turn into a wolf, or we're about to see some sparkling Vampires."

"…what?" asked Goombella.

"…nothing," I said, rolling up the map. "Let's go, Frankly's waiting."

* * *

After a side-quest with getting our names on our clothes so we could go through the pipe to Twilight Town (I was reminded of the same person who named Dry Dry Desert), we went back to the Inn and ate dinner. We ate in peace… well, relative peace. On one hand, no monsters barged in and tried to kill us or poison our food or blasted a laser cannon into the place. On the other hand, Iuka was dreamily staring at my left hand the whole time.

"…you know," I said, "this is beginning to border on obsession."

"Hm?" Iuka blinked back up at me. "Oh… I'm sorry, I just… well…"

Her hand slowly slid forward and touched my clawed hand. I quickly jumped up and away from the booth.

"OKAY, so, I'm tired," I said as I rushed off. "Goodnight, no need to check on me, I'll just keep my door locked. And my windows boarded up. And my air vents shut tight."

"…so anyway, hi, my name's Leon," Leon said to Iuka as she stared up after me, looking a little hurt.

* * *

**Author's Note: Well it's true. Anyway, you might be wondering why I put Pax in here instead of Nozan. Well, it's because I have something planned for Wednesday's Chapter! And, just between you and me, the Coron fans are going to get a kick out of it. Well, 'till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	32. Chapter 32: Dive to the Heart

**Author's Note: Okay Coron fans, get ready for your favorite Nightmare! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 32: Dive to the Heart**_

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"Oh…" I shook my head and blinked hard. Then, I paused and blinked again. The outside world looked just as black as the inside of my eyelids.

"Wha…" I started, looking around. Then, I covered my head in pain. Images of what I've done in the past… pain of doing so… no, this is what I was hiding from… I don't-

"Pathetic."

"WHAT?" I roared, my anger temporarily overcoming my pain as I looked around.

"You heard me, slime," the voice repeated in a tone I could tell was sneering. "Pathetic. Weak. Scared of a few memories."

"Show me your damned face so I can rip it off!" I snarled, looking around through the darkness.

"If you insist..." There was a flash, and suddenly, I was staring at...

"...myself?" I asked in confusion.

"Who else, moron?" the other me asked. I snarled in response to this. "Oh what are you going to do, wild boy? I'm you, you can't hurt me without becoming a masochist or something."

"Alright..." I growled, looking around. "So... I'm in a void of nothing, and because of the pain I was in, I'm seeing myself talk to me?"

"Pretty much," the other me shrugged.

"Oh joy, I'm a loon," I sighed, rubbing my temple.

"While that may be true, that's not why you're seeing me," the other me said.

"I'm pretty sure any logical argument a hallucination can give me won't be worth listening to, but go on," I said.

"You might notice that you're in pain because of some things you've done in the past," the other me said. "Can't imagine why... what's done is done, even if it's something like this."

The image of myself stabbing my claw through a pregnant woman's chest flashed across my mind. I cringed away, gripping at my chest as the pain returned.

"Are you really all that bothered by THAT?" laughed the other me coldly.

"S-shut up..." I snarled.

"Ooh, I'm so scared," the other me said mockingly. I met this with a growl.

"Oh shut up," the other me rolled his eyes. "Unless you want me to leave you alone in the dark with no way to get out?"

I was taken aback by this.

"You know how to leave?" I blinked.

"Huh, I could have sworn I JUST said that exact same thing," the other me said, tapping his chin in mock thought. "Yeah, I know how to leave. I also know where you are."

"…well are you going to tell me or not?" I asked.

"Oh, you mean you give me a choice?" the other me asked, turning to leave. "Alright, I'll go with-"

"TELL ME NOW," I snarled at him.

"Okay tiger, down boy," the other me smirked. "Now then… you are in your own Dive to the Heart."

"…what?" I asked. "But… you have to have a soul to reach that."

"Usually, yeah," the other me said. "But you're a special case. That fusion act you did with the Dream Keeper made his soul fuse into yours. So now, you technically have a soul, and everything that goes with it."

"The memories…" I placed a hand on my chest and looked down. "It's making me feel remorse for my actions, isn't it?"

"Wow, you JUST figured that out?" the other me asked sarcastically. I replied to this with a growl.

"So now," the other me continued, "you have a choice. You can stay here and go back to sleep, hiding from the pain for the rest of your miserable life… or you can face the memories head-on and have a slim chance of breaking out of this dull place."

"…" For a moment, I wasn't sure what I should do. Being able to escape the pain and just sleep for the rest of my life sounded like an excellent choice for a moment, but…

"…I'm no runner," I finally replied. "Hit me with your best shot, I'll take whatever pain you throw at me and hit you back with it."

The other me sneered and shook his head, sighing.

"You better hope this soul didn't make you soft, loser," he said. "You have a lot of pain to go through."

It was then my feet finally hit ground. I blinked and looked down at the ground, stepping forward. There was a flash, and the black ground under me exploded into hundreds of pitch black crows, cawing as they flew into the black nothingness. What I was standing on now was a large stained-glass image. I blinked at the image on the glass:

I was in the center of it, curled up with my eyes closed in pain. The glass was painted to look cracked and missing in places, images of corpses with black gashes in their bodies laying on the ground. Dark storm clouds covered the sky, which held the dark image of the Lord of Nightmares. His arms were spread, and puppet strings reached down toward me, but they were sliced halfway down.

"…THIS is what my heart looks like?" I asked, kicking the stained glass.

"Well what did you expect?" the other me asked. "You're so broken, I'm surprised the entire window isn't shattered into a million pieces. Guess the Dream Keeper's soul doubles as glue."

"Oh just shut up you-AUGH!" I gripped my head and dropped to my knees. The image of a town on fire, started by my hands, flashed through my mind and tore at my chest. So many innocent people, killed in the fire…

"I told you the pain's tough," laughed the other me. "Still time to change your mind. Or… nah, I think I'll just leave you here to writhe in pain."

He was about to leave when I slowly stood back to my feet, raising my head to glare at him.

"I already told you…" I growled, shaking the pain off to the back of my mind as I clenched my fists. "I'm. No. Runner."

The other me let out a low growl from his chest as he glared at me.

"…congratulations," he spat. "You passed the first test."

"Oh joy, High School all over again," I said, clapping. "Are we going to have special little awards for getting A Honor Roll, too? Oh, and when can I beat up the guy in the locker room for calling me-"

"SHUT UP," snapped the other me. I smirked, glad that I finally did something to irritate him.

"So what… this is what you'll be doing?" I asked. "Making me see things I've done in the past and watching me bear through them?"

"Oh you wish," laughed the other me cruelly. "No… you'll have to LIVE it."

He held out his hand, and a door formed into being in front of us.

"Step through, if you dare," mocked the other me.

"…fine," I shrugged, stepping forward. I took a breath before throwing the door open, stepping through.

* * *

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in a very familiar area in the Nightmare realm. It was…

"…the arena," I breathed. "This is… where I became the leader of my squadron."

"Also how you learned to manipulate other people's emotions and stab them in the back," the other me noted, turning toward the center. I saw a past version of myself walking with another Nightmare…

"Arret," I remembered. "The lone Nightmare with a soul."

"That's right," the other me said. "You and him were the strongest, most logical Nightmares in your squadron, both of you had equal chances of being the leader. So you posed as his friend, played on his squishy soul filled emotions…"

"Well Coron," sighed Arret to my past self, staring into the sky. "Tomorrow's the day, huh?"

"…yeah," the past me said, staring at Arret's back.

"Well… good luck," Arret said. "I mean… well, we'll have to do battle to decide which one of us is going to be the winner, right? But… I mean, you've been my only friend here."

Arret sighed and plopped down in a seat nearby. The past me still stood behind him, staying silent.

"…I'm starting to think maybe they resent the fact I have a soul," Arret sighed, resting his chin on a hand. "But… we all used to be like this, right? Why are they so angry that I'm like what we used to be?"

"Because the Lord can't manipulate you with one," the past me replied coldly. Arret turned around in surprise to find my hand, which had transformed into a dagger, wedged into his chest.

"Coron… why…?" asked Arret, staring up at my past self in shock.

"Shut up," the past me growled, ripping out his chest and kicking him to the ground. He then walked up and placed a clawed foot on his chest. "You know why we hate you? You're an abomination. That pitiful soul you have will never get you anywhere. It complicates things, makes you feel things that it would be easier to forget about."

"…you're wrong!" Arret growled, furious at the past me. "All Nightmares used to have souls! Only after that precious 'Lord' of yours began experimenting on us did we start to lose our souls and turn into… mindless, beast slaves! I'm not the abomination, YOU are!"

"Oh really?" the past me asked, leaning forward. "Well, which one of us is dying at the other's claws?"

With that, he ripped Arret apart with his claws, turning him into black smoke that was absorbed into him.

"Hmph," the past me stood up and walked away without a second thought. As I watched this, I felt my chest contract in pain at watching him hurt.

"What?" the other me asked. "You're remembering how Arret really did feel like he was your friend? How he opened up to you, and you just killed him?"

"S-shut up," I snarled.

"Why don't you tell that to your buddy?" sneered the other me, backing off as the darkness formed into Arret. He faced me with those eyes I remembered… the only white eyes that sparkled with a soul.

"Coron… why?" Arret asked painfully. "I thought you were my friend!"

"Arret-" I began.

"SHUT UP!" Arret snapped, glaring. "I don't want to hear any more of your lies! You killed me…"

His arms morphed into long whips.

"So maybe I'll do the same to you!"

He snapped his whip forward, and I only barely managed to roll out of the way. Arret turned and swiped under my feet, catching me off guard and landing me on my back. He growled and got into feral position, leaping at me. I rolled to the side and jumped back to my feet.

"Alright Arret…" I said, morphing my arms into swords. "If that's how you wanna play, then fine!"

Arret lunged, and I crossed my swords into an X to defend. He jumped off it and landed a few yards away, where upon he charged a dark bolt of energy and shot it at me. I held my claw out toward it, and it exploded, parting around me. Arret flexed his claws, and the energy re-formed behind me and turned into a dark lance, shooting toward me. I turned around and sliced it clean in half with my blade, where upon I was lashed from behind by Arret's whip. Grunting in pain, I staggered forward, where upon my feet were tied up with the dark whip and pulled from under me, causing me to fall flat on my face on the ground. I managed to quickly turn around as he yanked me toward him and slice the whip apart, however, freeing me. He screamed and staggered back, holding his arm in pain as the whip around my feet turned to smoke. I was still flying through the air, so I turned and tackled Arret, knocking him to the ground.

The fight turned into the kind you would see two lions partaking in. Arret dug his fangs into my shoulder, I roared and retaliated with a blow to his side. He grunted and let go in time for me to punch him in the jaw. I did this again and again until he caught my fist in his own claw and twisted it. I cried out before slamming my elbow into his torso. He gave a cry and bit my arm, where upon I twisted it around, flinging him onto his face and grabbing his wrists in my claws. I forced him up and ran forward, slamming his face into a wall.

"Arret, LISTEN to me!" I snarled in his ear.

"Why should I?" Arret snarled right back. "Everything you've ever said to me was a lie! You-"

"I'm sorry!" I finally spat out. Arret paused in his struggle.

"…what?" he whispered.

"I'm sorry… for killing you," I hung my head. "And for pretending to be your friend. Truth be told… I really was jealous of you, Arret. You were smarter than me, more ready with the troops. Your strategies were far superior to any strength I could muster. And for that… I knew I could never win against you in a fair fight, so I took you out. The Lord never instructed me to kill you, which is what I deluded myself to think… it was all me, and for that… I'm sorry."

"…" Arret turned his head to me and smiled.

"Coron…" he said. "That's… all I wanted to hear."

He closed his eyes as his body glowed.

"Owning up to your actions and feeling remorse is only the beginning though…" he warned me. "You have a long way to go. Before I leave… can you do me a favor?"

"What's that?" I asked, weary at his glowing.

"…stop calling him the Lord," Arret said. "He's not your master anymore. You are the master of your own path."

As these words echoed into nothing, his body turned into light and was absorbed into me. I gasped and staggered back, expecting it to hurt… but no. It… felt nice. Like… something in my chest was torn, and now… it filled the cracks.

"…I promise, Arret," I said, looking down and placing my hand on my chest.

"Well well well," a snide voice said. I turned to see the other me, and was satisfied to see he seemed as pained as I felt fixed.

"Lesson number two is learned," I smirked at him. "What's next?"

"Knowing the sick sadistic people around the world, Yaoi," the other me tried to sneer, but he seemed too hurt to do so.

"Oh hardy har har," I rolled my eyes as I walked to him. "Where's the door?"

"…" the other me pointed grudgingly at another door at the far end of the Arena.

"Good." I brushed past him toward the doors.

"You think this proves anything?" the other me called after me. "You're still weak, broken! You're nothing, do you hear me?"

"Oh piss off," I gave him the finger as I stepped through the doors.

* * *

**Author's Note: Phew! Sorry for the delay, but I was needed by a friend. Anyway, hope you like reading this as much as I liked writing it! 'Till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	33. Chapter 33: Twilight Town

**Author's Note: …nah, I'm not gonna have Goombella's journal. Sorry, everyone. Buuuuut… that means we get to the main stuff quicker!**

* * *

_**Chapter 33: Twilight Town**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

The light of the sunset shined everything in a bright orange color. The streets sloped upward, as if the town we were in was built on a mountain. The train passed by, going around a Candy Shop as-

"Wait," I said, looking around. "…this is Twilight Town, but DEFINATLY not the place we should be."

"I know!" Goompa was suddenly standing in front of us in a black leather coat. "This place seemed more upbeat, so I pulled the switch to send the pipe here!"

"Well would you pull it back?" Goombella sighed.

"Pull what?" asked Goompa.

"The switch to… you know what, never mind," I sighed. "We're just gonna go through the pipe a few more times until-"

"Waaaaait!"

We turned to see a thin, blonde kid with checker print clothing and a Keyblade run up to us.

"Take… take me with you!" he panted. "This place has turned into a nightmare! All my friends have vanished, there's this guy in a black cloak who wants to kill me, and these white things are-AUGH!"

He ducked as a creepy white thing that looked like it had a spine made of gelatin and a zipper for a mouth jumped down and swung at him. The blonde kid ducked and sliced up at it with his Keyblade, making it vanish into white smoke.

"See?" the blonde kid cried. "Please, I can't take this much more! Take me with you and out of this hell!"

"…well," I started.

"Oooh, sounds like fun!" Goompa said. "I can make things disappear too! Watch!"

He clapped his feet and blew, and with a POP, my friends and I vanished, leaving behind nothing but colorful balls.

"You can use these to play with your nice pets!" Goompa said, kicking a ball into the blonde kid's face, causing him to stumble back into the arms of another white creature.

"NOOO!" he cried as he was dragged away. "TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

"It's so inspiring to see a boy play with his pets…" Tears welled up in Goompa's eyes.

"It sure is, Fred!" one of his tears said, giving him a thumbs-up.

* * *

The Twilight Town we were going into, in contrast to the last one, was much darker. I would have gone as far as to call it night town if it weren't for the fact that we could still see in a bit of light. Still, it was really gloomy for Twilight…

"Hey!" a dark looking guy with green skin, clothes of a poor boy, and yellow eyes ran up to us.

"Did you… come from the outside?" he asked.

"Uh… yeah," I nodded. "Why, what's up?"

"Oh man… now's a BAD time to be here," he said. "You've gotta understand!"

"Wait… what the heck do you mean?" Leon asked.

"It's a scary tale to tell, but…"

Ding dong! The bell tolled right then.

"Oh no!" the dark guy said. He whirled around and grabbed me by my shoulders. "You gotta get out of here, man! The bell rang again! This is it, man! Game over, man! Game over!"

With that, the dark looking guy exploded into purple smoke, and was replaced with a pig.

We all screamed. Two of our screams were high-pitched.

"…Mario, was that you?" Flurrie asked.

"N-no!" I said. "I most certainly do NOT scream that high pitched! It must've been Goombella!"

"Mario, it was my scream and someone else's," Goombella replied.

"Th-then Flurrie…?"

"Sorry hon," Flurrie shrugged. "My voice is high, but not THAT high."

"Well… I certainly am not the one who-"

"Oh dear… poor Freddy…" a voice said, and a blue guy, similar looking to the last one, but older and with a walking stick, walked up to us.

"Huh?" Goombella asked. "Who're you?"

"I'm the mayor of this poor town," the man replied. "Some call me Dour."

"Some, not all?" I asked.

"Yes, other people instead call me Sandy," Dour replied.

"…wait, you're serious?" asked Leon.

"I most certainly am not joking," Dour said seriously.

"Ooooookay then…" Leon said, shuffling away awkwardly.

"Well, I'm not exactly the sharpest fellow, but you are adventurers, right?" Dour asked. "This isn't the place for the telling of tales, sadly. Come into my house."

"Follow a creepy old guy named Sandy into his house with no windows?" asked Leon. "Yeah, thanks, but no thanks."

"Not like we have a choice, someone's gotta explain that Piggy act earlier…" I sighed, following Dour into his house. My friends followed close behind, and we were all soon sitting at a table.

"Welcome to Twilight Town," Dour said. "Well… I'd LIKE to welcome you, but 'welcoming' people usually implies something good, and it's nothing but bad here. As you may have guessed… our town's cursed."

"Kinda hard to overlook that fact with people transforming into pigs out there," Goombella replied.

"Well there's no need to get sarcastic…" muttered Dour.

"Please, continue…" Koops said, shaking in his shell at the word.

"Well… beyond our town is a forest, and in its heart is an ancient building, the Creepy Steeple," Dour continued.

"Sounds like an appropriate name," I nodded.

"A dark creature lives there," said Dour, "and it's curse ordains that when the steeple bell rings…"

"People turn to swine," I finished. "Well, better than someone getting a visit from a skeleton in a black cloak with a scythe, right?"

"…er, yes," Dour said, throwing a napkin over his plate of bacon. "Well anyway, I'm so worried that I can barely sleep at night…"

"Aren't night and day pretty similar around-" started Goombella.

"Take my advice and leave us before you too become piggified!" Dour said.

"Well… we… can't," Koops gulped. "We're looking for a Crystal Star. H-have you ever heard of it?"

"It's about as big as me, shiny, able to alter reality itself…" Leon described, trying to help.

"…well, there's a glittery red stone shaped like a star in Creepy Steeple," Dour said.

"Oh, it HAD to be in the steeple, didn't it?" I groaned, covering my face with my hand. "Well… c'mon, we better get going."

"Wait… you're not actually thinking of going to Creepy Steeple, are you?" cried out Dour as we got up to leave.

"Don't worry," I smirked, giving him the thumbs-up. "We'll be in and out of there in no time, with the Crystal Star and you guys saved from Pigification to boot!"

* * *

"WADDAYA MEAN WE'RE NOT ALLOWED OUTSIDE THE VILLAGE?" Goombella complained.

"Sorry, but you may only go through if the Mayor gives you the okay," the gatekeeper said firmly.

"Well… c'mon, let's just go," I sighed, turning around and walking back to Dour's house. As we walked, the bell tolled again, which made me pause.

"…wait, it hasn't been an hour," I said. "Why the heck would it ring again if an hour hasn't passed?"

"Goompa could be ringing it," shrugged Goombella.

"Oh yeah…" I nodded, continuing. We entered Dour's house…

…and stared at a pig, oinking as it shuffled across the floor.

"Well… crap," I sighed.

"Now what should we do, Mario?" asked Flurrie. "Dour can't give us permission if all he can do is squeak and oink."

"Hm…" I thought for a minute. "Okay… I got a plan!"

"Oh here we go…" sighed Goombella as we left the house.

"What's the plan, Pax?" asked Leon.

"Okay," I said as we walked, "first, we need someone to dress up as a ninja. Then-"

The bell rang, interrupting me. We looked up to see the gatekeeper was now a pig.

"…well this makes it easier at least," I sighed, pushing the gate open and walking on through. My friends followed close behind.

* * *

**Author's Note: Short, but we'll get longer in the next few chapters. 'Till then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	34. Chapter 34: Creepy Steeple

**Author's Note: Okay, in this chapter we have a Creepy Steeple and some more Coron action! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 34: Creepy Steeple**_

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"Geeze… could you give me a little MORE fog?" I asked, waving the thick fog away from my face. I was walking down a corridor completely made of glass. I could barely see five feet beyond me, however, because of how thick the fog was.

I wasn't really asking anyone this question, but I was still caught off-guard when I didn't hear the other me give a sarcastic retort.

"Hello?" I looked around. "Other me?"

Silence.

"…huh," I shrugged, walking ahead. "Guess I'm alone then."

I didn't mind. I've been alone most my life…

Wait, that's a lie. The Lo-the man who manipulates the Nightmares was in my head, telling me what to do. He did the same with all the other Nightmares.

I also had my squadron…

And those idiots in the dream…

Huh. Now that I stopped to think about it… I've NEVER been alone before.

I shook my head and forced myself forward. I couldn't stop to think about being completely alone… no one to stand with me in the quiet fog filled corridor-

"No!" I shouted, hitting a wall. "I am NOT reliant on others! I am my own-"

Crack.

I turned to see the glass wall grow cracks all down it. I stepped back as it completely shattered, leaving behind a huge opening into nothingness. The air felt wide, expansive… lonely.

"…right," I said, shaking my head as I forced myself forward, keeping my arms crossed. I tried not to think of how… alone I was, how empty the world I was walking in was…

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"I feel almost like… part of me is alone in an empty world…" I said, blinking.

"Well… th-that might be an improvement over this place…" Koops shuddered, looking around. The five of us were walking through a deep, dark forest. It was getting to Koops and Flurrie, both Goombella and Leon were obviously scared but trying to act like they weren't, and I…

…well, honestly, I wasn't really that scared. I probably would have been if it weren't for a few facts.

One: I lived pretty much in the middle of nowhere in front of a big forest, and I used to go in and explore all the time with my family when I was little.

Two: I feel more scared when alone. I was with four friends AND monsters were littering every other step.

Three: I explored a much scarier forest in my last adventure, so this one seemed like a cakewalk.

"AH!" Goombella jumped away as another Hyper Cleft jumped out of the bushes and dashed at her.

"Oh, I got this," I said, smashing the lights out of the Hyper Cleft with my Nightmare Hand.

"I… thanks Mario," Goombella breathed. "I… well, I could have taken that thing down, but… it startled me, you know?"

"Yeah… heh, startle…" Koops said, looking forward. "Th… that's what we are… startled…"

"BOO!" Leon jumped and grabbed Koops' shoulders.

"AAAAH!" Koops pulled himself into his shell and shook on the ground in fear.

"Startled. Right." Leon laughed.

"Leon…" I sighed.

"Sorry, sorry…" Leon said. "Couldn't help myself…"

"Try next time, okay?" I asked as Flurrie picked Koops' shell up and carried him with her. After a brief amount of walking, we wound up out of the forest and in front of a tall, creepy looking steeple.

"…well," I said, looking up at it. "I get this is Creepy Steeple and all, but… something's really off-putting."

"You mean the fact that something in there is turning people to pigs?" Flurrie asked.

"No," I shook my head. "The fact this place has no bell to ring."

"Oh Mario, don't be… wait a minute, you're right!" Goombella noticed as well. "How could it ring a bell if it has no bell to ring?"

"That is a VERY good question," I nodded. "One that's probably not going to be explained nor pointed out again by anyone other than us."

"I guess you're starting to find patterns, huh?" Goombella asked as I broke off the lock holding the gate closed with my Nightmare Hand.

"You know it," I replied with a smile. "C'mon, we still got some ways to go…"

With that, we entered the Creepy Steeple.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

The glass hallway ended, opening up into the fog of space in front of me. Even though there should have been no floor below me, I walked across just fine, as if the fog below me formed into a solid platform as I walked. The added space only managed to add to the loneliness that I felt. I took a deep breath as I continued forward.

"Fear," I said to myself. "Fear is what Nightmares manipulate inside a human's dream to produce negative energy and harness it. Nightmares do not feel fear, we manipulate it."

I paused.

"…and yet we all feared doing something wrong and having the Manipulator punish us," I added. "But… I don't fear him anymore. No, he can't touch me. He-"

I paused when I felt my foot hit something. I looked down and saw a tape player. With a raised eyebrow, I bent down and picked it up, hitting the play button.

"Why?" the voice started. "Why do these new Nightmares this strange man breeds feed on fear?"

I was taken aback. This must have been recorded by someone who lived before the revolution…

…wait a second, this was all happening inside my head, how did I pick up this recording? Well… oh wait, I must have heard it once long ago, and my subconscious kept it until now…

"We Nightmares don't willingly cause fear," the recorded voice continued. "We only try and warn the Humans who live in the World of Waking of problems they have yet to face. That's how it has always been, since the beginning of Humanity. And yet… this strange man, he mutates and creates Nightmares… without souls. These Nightmares follow him like a puppet, they do whatever they're told whenever they're told. And one of those things… is harvesting fear using their powers.

"For some reason, Humans let off this negative energy whenever fear is introduced to them in extreme amounts. In some cases, the fear is so great, this negative energy is capable of forming into large Nightmares, mutants. These things this strange man calls 'Black Guardians' but I see them for what they really are… living weapons to use against the Dreamers.

"He has already sent some of these creatures after specific Dreams and the Dreamers' home world. He has all the 'Black Guardians' he'd ever need, yet he keeps harvesting this dark energy. For what, I don't know. But I do know this… this world isn't home anymore. It's some kind of enslavement and brainwashing camp for that horrible man. But I'm not going down quietly. If I'm going down, I'm going down with a fight.

He is not going to lay a finger on my soul."

With that, the tape ended. I was silent as I dropped it back to the ground, suddenly feeling a lot more cold and alone. The words of Arret rebounded in my head:

"_All Nightmares used to have souls! Only after that precious 'Lord' of yours began experimenting on us did we start to lose our souls and turn into… mindless, beast slaves!"_

I never paid much thought to it. I thought he was bluffing. I knew the Manipulator caused some big change to Nightmare kind back in the revolution, but… removing souls? No Nightmare had a soul, that was fact, that was law.

But it was a law that was only recently written?

My thoughts on what the voice just said, I continued on into the fog.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"HI-AH, that's one powerful spring!" I cried as I landed on my feet. After quite some time exploring the Steeple, involving fighting ghosts and bats and not much really funny or interesting happening (excluding the Atomic Boo, but he's an optional boss in the game so we'll just ignore him here), we climbed up a set of stairs and bounced off a trampoline and into the highest room in the Steeple.

"Hey!" a voice said. We turned to face a creature covered in a bed sheet, laying back on a couch and flipping through channels on a TV.

"You guys mind?" he asked. "Who Wants to be a Millionaire is on!"

"Wait, you're sitting here and watching game shows while you're turning people into pigs with a ring of a bell?" I asked, appalled.

"Speaking of, where IS your bell?" asked Goombella.

"Oh, funny story," the creature said. "See, it-SUPER DASH!"

He slammed right into me, knocking me down the stairs.

"Ow!" I shoved him off me, and he jumped to the wall, hitting it. It wavered and opened up into another room, holding…

"An empty Nightmare body?" I asked in alarm, stepping back with wide eyes.

"You have NO idea how hard this puppy was to get," the cloaked creature said. "But I've known you were coming for awhile, Mario. Body swap isn't that hard to accomplish."

"Known I was… how did you…" my vision got fuzzy and I found it harder to think.

"Process has already begun… see you, Mario!" laughed the cloaked creature. There was a puff of purple smoke, and all that was left was a bed sheet. It pulled the Nightmare's body and mine into it and wrapped into a sphere. I was knocked around and condensed, I didn't even know what was happening. Then, suddenly, I was flung out. I noticed my arms were pitch black, both of them… and staring back at me was Mario. His eyes were different, though. They were defiantly the cloaked creature's.

"Goodnight," he smirked. I saw a fist fly toward my face.

Then everything went black.

* * *

**Author's Note: Pax is a Nightmare! Oh noooooo! Well, 'till tomorrow, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	35. Chapter 35: Xap

**Author's Note: Ugg… I should NOT have chosen to update Monday-Friday… Oh, here's the next chapter.**

* * *

_**Chapter 35: "Xap"**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

You know what sucks? Being totally alone.

You know what else sucks? Being totally alone in the body of a Nightmare.

But you know what sucks the most? Mosquitoes. Seriously, they suck up your blood like a vampire and leave you all itchy and-

Oh, sorry. ADHD, mind got off track. Where was I? Oh yeah, Nightmare.

When I finally forced my eyes open again, I found myself in a dark room, alone. Confused, I sat up and rubbed my head. I paused and gasped at my hand, because… well, it was purple and clawed. What really made this frightening, though, was the fact this purple hand was my RIGHT hand. I also saw my feet were clawed, my legs and arms were purple…

I dashed out of the dark room and through the main hall of the Steeple, stopping in front of a window. In the reflection, I saw, staring back at me…

…a Nightmare.

To be honest, I was a bit confused after the initial shock wore off. Why was I purple, not black? Well… maybe I was a different sub-species of Nightmare. I remembered that one time when I saw the Shadow Sirens and the voice that sounded like Coron said-

_WAIT A MINUTE, why am I letting myself get distracted like this? _I thought, shaking my head in aggravation. I spun on the spot and ran through the woods, after my-er, Mario's body.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"What?" I stood my ground and looked around as the place began shaking. "What the hell is going on here? Why-"

Around the same time Pax traded bodies with the Nightmare, I was flung into the eternal void of empty fog. I began to feel my consciousness wearing out…

"NO!" I shook my head and growled, turning in preparation to land. "I won't let myself succumb to whatever trick they're trying to pull now!"

"It's not a trick, idiot."

I spun to see the other me floating toward me.

"Oh, you again," I said, though somewhere inside me I was glad that I wasn't alone anymore.

"Don't pretend you didn't miss me," the other me mocked. "Who knew, a little Nightmare's scared of being alone?"

"Sh-shut up!" I snapped. "I am not!"

"Right, you were just putting on a very convincing act for yourself in that last area, right?" asked the other me. I growled, glaring at him.

"Right… but we've got other problems right now," the other me said. "Something must be done about the darkness inside this new body we're in."

"Wait… what new body?" I blinked.

"Apparently, the guy your soul's attached to… yeah, still can't say that with a straight face," laughed the other me.

"GET ON WITH IT."

"Fine, Mr. I-Have-No-Patience. He let himself get involved in a body swap with a Nightmare."

"A body swap with… WHAT?" I screamed, taken aback. "A human can't survive in a Nightmare's body! The mind and instincts will eventually take over!"

"Well, that's where we've hit a lucky break," the other me said. "For one thing, it's a Mutt, so it's not as powerful as a Pureblood. And another thing, it's basically been rendered a brain-dead body, void of any thoughts, emotions, instinct…"

"Geeze, what did that thing do to piss the Manipulator off?" I thought out loud.

"…Manipulator?" the other me asked. "That's what you're calling the Lord of Nightmares now?"

"So what?" I retorted. The other me met this with a smirk.

"Whatever," he shrugged. "Anyway, the Nightmare is void of any of this, so that means it'll take longer for him to take over."

"Longer… but possible," I said.

"And that's why you're being pulled out of your fear test-"

"I'M NOT AFRAID," I snapped.

"Suuuuure you aren't," the other me rolled his eyes.

"Do you want to fight me, right now?" I snapped, holding out my claws.

"Tempting, but not now," the other me said. "We need our energy to beat back this new Nightmare from taking over. And by we, I mean you. Goodbye."

A hole opened up in space under me, pulling me into a long fall. Growling, I braced myself for the landing, preparing my claws for battle. Secretly, I was actually glad I was getting away from that horrible loneliness…

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

"YOU LOST THE BOMB?" Beldam screamed at me.

"I'm… I'm sorry, sis!" I winced away. "I-I had it, but…"

"Well GO FIND IT!" Beldam hit me across the face, knocking me down. I bit my tongue to keep myself from crying out. That would only make her more angry.

"THAT DREAM KEEPER ISN'T GOING TO GET AWAY WITH LIVING ANY MORE!" she screeched. "NOT AFTER DOING THIS TO ME!"

She showed the stub on the side of her torso where her arm used to be.

"Now, you are going to stay here and find that bomb!" Beldam said. "If you don't…"

She let the threat hang as she pulled Marilyn along with her into a dark portal. The drugs were just given to her, so she was easier to drag along. When they left me… I hid behind some of the tall grass and… well, I cried. I'm not sure how long I stayed there, but I cried for awhile.

"Hey…" a voice said. I blinked and looked up to see another Nightmare, bending down and looking at me in concern. He was an infected one, like me, and I could see from his eyes he had a soul. But… those eyes looked familiar for some reason…

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I… um, yeah…" I sat up. "I'm fine…"

"Fine. Right." The Nightmare looked at my head in disbelief. I gently touched where he looked and winced. A bump had formed where Beldam had hit me.

"Oh, don't worry about this, I heal easily," I said, cupping my hand around the bump. There was a glow, and the bump faded into black smoke.

"Whoa… how'd you do that?" the Nightmare asked, his eyes wide in surprise.

"You're… new, aren't you?" I asked him.

"Well… yeah, you could say that," he rubbed the back of his head.

"Who infected you?" I asked him.

"Ya know… I didn't quite catch his name," the Nightmare replied. I couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"Oh, you see?" the Nightmare smiled. "You're not all gloomy anymore."

I blinked up in surprise. It occurred to me that… he was being nice to me. His eyes had a soul behind them…

"How did you keep it?" I asked suddenly.

"Keep what?" the Nightmare blinked.

"Your soul…" I pointed at his eyes. "The eyes can't lie, I can see the light of a soul behind them…"

"I, uh…" the Nightmare touched the spot under his eyes. "…huh."

"So how did you keep it?" I asked again.

"It was… uh… okay," the Nightmare sighed. "To tell you the truth… I was never really infected, per se."

"Then what happened?" I was very curious now.

"My body was swapped out with this one," the Nightmare said, looking down at his body. "The thing that swapped with me ditched his body and took mine."

"Wait… so you had your identity snatched from you?" Vivian asked in shock.

"You could say that…" the Nightmare said. "He's got my friends, my weapons, my powers…"

"…but you still stopped to help me, even though you have your own problems?" I asked, a tear welling in my eye.

"Well… yeah, you looked hurt," the Nightmare said. He grunted in surprise as I leapt at him, hugging him tightly.

"No one's… ever been this nice to me before…" I said, my voice choking up.

"Um… there there?" the other Nightmare sounded awkward as he patted me on the back. I pulled back and smiled at him.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Well… technically, that body snatcher has it right now," the Nightmare said.

"…you look like a Xap," I said.

"What's that?" the Nightmare asked as I let go of him and he stood up.

"It's Nital for Peace," I answered, standing up as well.

"Nital?" asked the Nightmare.

"It's the ancient language of the Nightmares, used for spells," I answered. "You have a lot to learn, huh?"

"I guess…" the Nightmare chuckled nervously. "Yeah… yeah, Xap is a cool name."

"Well it's good to meet you Xap," I smiled and offered a hand. "I'm Vivian."

"Vivian… well, it's nice to meet you, too," Xap smiled and shook my hand.

"So… where did the body exchange occur?" I asked. "Maybe if we go back there, we can find some hints on how to put you back in your own body.

"Back in Creepy Steeple… aw crap, does that mean we have to walk all the way through the forest again?" Xap complained. I smiled and shook my head.

"Take my hand," I said, offering my hand. "I'll show you a neat trick."

Xap raised an eyebrow, taking my hand. I turned and held out my other hand.

"_Open the corridor of darkness!" _I said in Nital. Dark energy surged through me, and a portal opened in front of us.

"Whoa!" Xap looked in shock. "You did that?"

"All Nightmares can," I nodded. "Now come on, we better hurry though. The Lord of Nightmares knows whenever we use these."

I dragged him through the portal with me, keeping his hand in mine.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry for the late update, I blame procrastination. Thank GOD I'll go back to the Monday-Wednesday-Friday Schedule next week… anyway, 'till next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	36. Chapter 36: Nightmare's Eclipse

**Author's Note: Yeah… sorry, but the whole "life crushing me like an elephant" thing… anyway, on the bright side, we're updating again! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 36: Nightmare's Eclipse**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…and this is the spot," I said, breaking down the wall with a well-placed Nightmare kick. Vivian stepped into the hidden room and shuddered.

"Wow…" she said. "This place has trace energies of… bad, bad magic."

"Doesn't surprise me…" I sighed, shaking my head. "Can we get my body back?"

"I… think," Vivian said. "But we'd have to get your body here first."

"Which means tricking the dude into coming back here…" I muttered, biting my finger and pacing. "Hm… oh! I got it!"

"Really?" asked Vivian. "How?"

"Okay…" I held up my hands. "First up… do you know where we can find ninjas?"

"Uh…" Vivian blinked. "No?"

"Darn it," I sighed. "Aw well. Plan B then. Now listen close, first…"

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"…oi, other me?" I asked, looking up.

"What?" the other me asked, appearing and falling next to me, arms crossed.

"How long is this fall anyway?" I asked, looking down. "We've been falling for how long now?"

"Three weeks, give or take."

"What?"

"Twenty minutes, I said twenty minutes!"

"…right," I sighed, looking down again. "Anyway, when are we going to finally hit the bottom?"

Speak of the devil, as soon as I asked that, a light appeared at the base of the bottomless pit, dropping me off flat on my feet on a concrete flooring.

"Geeze!" I winced, standing up as the other me floated down. "That freakin' smarts!"

"Pft, can't even take a mile drop flat on your feet like a man…" the other me rolled his eyes.

"Watch your… wait a minute, where are we anyway?" I asked, looking around. We seemed to be in a small, concrete room. Some stairs in the corner led up to a door, apparently leading out of the room.

"Where else? The final memory of the person who this Nightmare used to be," the other me clarified.

"…alright, how the hell do you know this?" I asked, turning to him.

"How do you NOT?" he smirked.

"Don't screw with my mind, you little-" I started, but I was cut off when a creature from Twilight Town (I wondered only later how I knew that) ran in, slamming the door behind him and locking it. As he ran down and reached the base of the stairs, there was a violent beating on the door.

"Go away!" he screamed, backing up into a corner. "I mean it!"

The door was smashed down into splinters, and a wild, Pureblood Nightmare jumped in, hunched and snarling at the man. Behind him was a short woman with glasses, a clipboard, and hair tied into a bun.

"Tashanax?" I blinked at the memory.

"Hello sir," she told the man, adjusting her glasses. "I'm afraid you'll have to stand still for us, m'kay?"

"Wha… THAT THING IS TRYING TO KILL ME!" screamed the man, pale with fright.

"No it isn't," Tashanax replied, looking down at her clipboard. "It's just going to infect you. Now, hold still while it attacks, I have a tight schedule to keep up with."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY INFECT?" the man was taken aback. The Nightmare couldn't wait anymore and lunged, sinking it's fangs into the man's shoulder. He screamed and pulled away, falling on the ground. He looked and gasped, as his shoulder was completely ripped off, yet he wasn't bleeding. The entire section of his body immediately turned a purple-ish color, spreading and expanding to fill the hole now sitting next to his head. He screamed and writhed on the ground, and in less than a minute, his flesh exploded, leaving behind a Nightmare. It got up and snarled, but was quickly knocked out by Tashanax with a swift toss of her clipboard, which smacked him in the back of the neck and flew back into her hands like a boomerang.

"Let's go," Tashanax said, adjusting her glasses and opening a portal as the Pureblood Nightmare picked up the newly infected Nightmare, slinging him over his shoulders. "We have to empty this thing out if the Lord's plan is to go properly."

She held out her hand and opened up a dark corridor, stepping in with the Nightmares in tow. The room went dark as the Pureblood was about to step in, and the Infected slowly woke up. He groggily pulled himself out of the arms of the Pureblood as the room faded away. He fell to his feet and slowly raised his head to face me.

"Great, it's awake," the other me said. "And watch as it suddenly breaks into a full-out rage."

The Nightmare blinked in confusion at the dark, enclosed room it was trapped in. Confusion led to fear. Fear led to anger. Anger led to it lunging at me.

"Okay you little mutt, looks like I'll just have to keep you submissive!" I growled as I rolled out of the way, flexing my claws.

"Heh…" the other me floated up and crossed his arms as he watched us battle, smirking all the while.

* * *

_**Enter Leon:**_

* * *

"Alright guys… so, let's go and all?" Pax asked, adjusting his hat and holding the Crystal Star.

"Hey Mario, how come you haven't absorbed the star yet?" I asked.

"Yeah, I was going to ask that earlier…" Koops said.

"Oh, uh…" Pax gulped for some reason. "I was waiting until we went back through the pipe! Yeah, so when we get back, I'll be in my element… and stuff."

"…right," I said. Pax was REALLY different after that battle with that thing, but I didn't say anything yet.

"Mario, it's not really a very good idea to be showing off that Crystal Star like that," Goombella said (I wonder about that sometimes. Is Mario his nickname?). "You really should put it away or something."

"Ah relax, sweetie," Pax shrugged off. "I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen? A Nightmare jumps out of nowhere, snatches it from my hand, and carries it off into the distance?

Suddenly, a Nightmare jumped out of nowhere, snatched the Crystal Star from his hand, seeming to charge up some kind of energy to hold it without touching it, and carried it off into the distance. We all stared after him for a moment in quiet shock.

"Well… um, you kinda called that one," Flurrie blinked.

"…after that thing!" Pax shouted, sprinting after the Nightmare. We all followed behind.

"I hate to say I told you so Mario, but…" Goombella said. Pax totally ignored her as he sprinted through the town.

Wait a minute, Pax IGNORED Goombella? Something was DEFINALTY up.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"Erg!" I grunted as the Nightmare flung me through the air. I landed on my back, sliding a bit before I flipped back to my feet.

"Oh come on now, really?" the other me tapped his foot impatiently. "He's not even a week old, and you're STILL getting your ass handed to you?

"You don't seem to realize we are LITTERALLY in his element!" I replied sharply, turning my arms into swords. "We are lucky this thing hasn't figured out how to manipulate this world to his advantage!"

It seemed that this world, having given up on scaring me, attempted to piss me off, for as soon as I said that, the Nightmare leapt into the air, the air morphing under him to create a platform.

"You were saying?" asked the other me with a smirk.

"Unless you want to fight this thing, I would suggest you SHUT YOUR MOUTH," I snapped, running forward and leaping, morphing my legs to allow myself to reach that height. As soon as I landed, however, the Nightmare snarled and stepped back, the area I was on fading into nothingness.

"Oh no you don't!" I cried out, grabbing his ankle. He grunted in surprise, and we both fell down toward the ground. I spun around and planted my feet into his back, holding his arms behind him. He snarled and tried to shake loose, but I wouldn't let him go. It wasn't long before we hit the ground, the Nightmare face-first. The force of the impact wasn't what he was expecting, and he was knocked out.

"Well…" I climbed off him, brushing my hands off. "That takes care of that."

I turned to walk away, but then I sensed something moving behind me. I spun around to see the darkness around absorb into the Nightmare as he climbed back to his feet.

"Oh GIVE ME A BREAK," I said, clenching my hands into fists, morphing them into spiked clubs. I dashed after the Nightmare again, swinging.

"This could take a while," smirked the other me, leaning back and watching.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

Panting, I ran back into the room of the doppelganger and dropped the Crystal Star, turning to Vivian.

"How did you…" started Vivian, looking at the Crystal Star.

"I did that telepathy thing," I answered. "Never even touched it."

"…Xap, Nightmares can't use telepathy," Vivian said. "We charge up power and discharge it to-"

She was interrupted as my friends and the body snatcher jumped up through the opening, landing in battle position as they glared at me.

"Oh great, the Shadow Sirens again," Goombella said. "…wait, where are your sisters?"

"And who's this new guy?" asked Flurrie.

"Okay, better question… who the heck are the Shadow Sirens?" asked Leon. "Are they those Nightmares you were talking about?"

"Look, it doesn't matter!" the body snatcher snapped, glaring at me.

"Wait… that's…" Vivian blinked. She gasped, stepping away from and staring at me. "You're Mario, aren't you?"

"Well… yes, but-" I started.

"And you just USED me!" Vivian said, tearing up. "I thought you liked me!"

"Vivian, please just let me explain!" I cried after her, but she simply turned around and ran, warping out through a dark portal.

"Hey Nightmare!" the body snatcher mocked. "If you're done fighting with your girlfriend, we have a fight to get to!"

I turned to glare at him, noticing all my friends ready to fight me.

"…no," I shook my head. "Just… take it."

I blasted the Crystal Star at them, which Koops caught (the force knocking him onto his shell).

"Wait a minute, what?" asked Leon. "I thought you Nightmares love to fight!"

"I won't fight my friends!" I said, clenching my fists. "So… you win. You've got my sword, you got the Star… just go."

"What… you think I'd actually leave you alone?" the body snatcher sneered, summoning the Sword. "Let's finish this right now!"

He ran at me, his sword raised…

…then Goombella slammed into his back, knocking him down.

"What… hey!" the body snatcher glared, forcing himself up as Goombella stood by my side.

"Look buddy," she said, "I don't know who you are… but I know the real Mario would never attack someone like that!"

She turned her head up to me. "Mario also never gives up, you know."

"What if Mario's friends were in danger?" I replied with a grin as Leon, Flurrie and Koops walked to my side as well.

"Well, that might be an acceptable circumstance," Goombella shrugged.

"Gr… It doesn't matter, I'll take you ALL down!" shouted the body snatcher, running at me. He was suddenly pulled back, the Sword leaving his hand. It floated in the air for a moment before dashing toward me, attaching itself to my hand by an invisible string. It glowed and swung like a pendulum in my grip.

"Wow…" I said, staring at the Crystal Sword. "Guess this means it really has chosen me as its master…"

"Mario!" A portal opened up, and we turned to see Vivian run in.

"You're… you really were nice to me, and I just… I don't care what my sisters say, I want to stand by you!" she said, looking up. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, and…"

She slowed to a stop as she saw my friends standing by me.

"Welcome to the team!" I smiled, giving her a thumbs-up.

"Alright, I don't care how many partners you have!" the body snatcher said, clenching his fists. "I'll take you all down!"

"No way, dude!" I said, getting into battle position as well. "You and me, this is personal! We're fighting one-on-one!"

"Wait, one-on-one what now?" asked Goombella.

"Vivian, I need you to do me a favor," I said. "Take all my friends and move them out of here, please."

"Wha… but Mario…" Vivian said.

"Please!" I said. She was silent for a moment.

"Well… alright," she sighed, holding out her hands. "Everyone, think of the thing that's closest to your heart."

"Wait, you can't do this!" Goombella said. "Mario, wait!"

She tried to push herself out of range, but it was for naught: In a column of darkness, they were all gone.

You know, that's a funny word. Naught. It's fun to use it in a sentence, you know. There's just something about using words that aren't used very often that has a certain charm-

Wait, what am I saying? I'm getting totally off track! Sorry… so, where was I?

Oh yeah. After my friends warped out, I turned to glare at the body snatcher.

"You and me. One on one," I challenged, walking in a circle. He met my stride and walked at my pace, completing the large circle.

"Sure," the doppelganger sneered. "With this body, I can beat you down easily!"

"You know…" he continued, flexing his fists, "I've been watching things about you for a long time. I was really envious of you. I wanted to be you, to be as famous and loved as you!"

"…you know, you could have succeeded in doing something like that if you didn't go around and, I don't know, TURN PEOPLE INTO PIGS," I replied.

"Oh come on!" the body snatcher said. "So I turn a village of people into swine ONCE! Does that brand me for life?"

"…YES!" I said in exasperation. "YES, IT DOES!"

"Pfft, you're just jealous you can't do something as cool," he said, crossing his arms.

"See? THIS is why you could never be me!" I said, flinging my arms into the air. "I don't strut my power or see who I can mess with! I just fight for what's worth fighting for!"

"…I was envious over YOU?" asked the body snatcher, blinking. "Geeze, what a pansy."

"Hey!" I said, offended.

"Don't matter none anyway, I have your body, and now… I'll beat you with it!"

He jumped up and slammed down toward me, feet first. I rolled out of the way and swung the sword up at him. He BARELY managed to doge it, some of his hair… er, my hair… no, Mario's hair being cut off. God, this is getting confusing, even for me… I stepped forward and swung a punch at him, but he caught my wrist and flipped me, making me land on my back painfully. Laughing, he kicked me in the ribs, making me roll across the floor. The sword fell out of my grip and vanished in a blast of light.

"You know…" the body snatcher said, stomping on my side painfully, "I think when I'm done with you, I'll just hypnotize your friends into thinking I'm you. Won't be too hard, and maybe if they don't fall under, I'll just off them instead."

I grabbed his foot and glared up at him, my eyes glowing with pure rage.

"Bad. Move," I hissed, standing up. Dark tentacles sprouted from my back.

"Wh… wha…" he staggered back, staring at me with wide eyes.

"_**Limit Break…**_" I stretched my arms out wide. "_**NIGHTMARE'S ECLIPSE!**_"

Dark tentacles sprouted from the ground and wrapped around the body snatcher, forcing him to the ground. He struggled in the grip, but he couldn't escape. I flew into the air, reaching the sky, and held out my arms. Pure darkness formed around me, taking on the shape of a large sphere, completely blocking out the light of the moon. The sphere launched down toward the body snatcher, trapped in his spot. It completely enveloped the steeple and… well, I don't remember anything after that.

* * *

_**Enter Edwin:**_

* * *

"Finally!" I twitched, having finished Cold Fusion yet again. "It took me all this time and a few pills to calm myself, but I have finally created Cold Fusion! And this time, hidden under a Creepy Steeple, there's no way anyone can come in and destroy it!"

Suddenly, everything started shaking.

"No!" I shouted up at the ceiling, covering my Cold Fusion. "It's mine! I won't let you take it from me!"

"Quick!" An old Goomba suddenly said, standing next to me in a cape. "We gots to get out of here!"

"What… why?" I asked.

"Because…" the Goomba put on shades. "I'm the darn Goompa Man."

Lifting me over his head, he jumped away, leaving Cold Fusion behind.

"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Goom-pa!" Goompa sang, jumping into a carrot, buckling me in next to him. "We're off to save Emo City!"

He launched out of the Steeple, flying on a pillowcase of artichoke flavored cotton candy. I spun around to see a huge, dark orb absorb and destroy the entire Steeple, along with my Cold Fusion.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" I cried, slamming my fist against the carrot as I sobbed. "WHY? WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME? WHY?"

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"What the-" I said, looking around at everything shaking. The Nightmare lifted itself into the air, glowing with pure darkness.

"Oh crap…" the other me turned and ran, looking terrified. I took this as a sign that I should run too and followed behind him. As I did, I heard the sound of a Nightmare's Limit Break activating, and I felt a searing hot blast knock me off my feet and into oblivion, where upon I fell unconscious.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

"Take me back, NOW!" shouted Goombella, glaring at me.

"B-but Mario said…" I started, stepping back.

"Mario's a flipping IDIOT!" Goombella snapped. "That THING has his strengths and powerful dark magic! He can't fight that thing alone! He needs us, so take us-"

"Uh…" interrupted Koops, pointing up to the sky with wide eyes. Leon and Flurrie were staring at where he was pointing as well.

"What…?" asked Goombella as she and I looked up at the same time. We saw a great, dark orb completely eclipsing the moon, and it fell down and enveloped what I could only assume to be the Creepy Steeple. A moment later, there was a huge explosion, parting the air and pushing us all back.

"Oh no… he's activated his Limit Break!" I said in panic as the wind died down.

"What the heck is a Limit Break?" asked Leon.

"When someone is on their last legs, physically or emotionally, they can unleash their true potential into one massive attack," I replied, opening another corridor of darkness. "There is ALWAYS a drawback, however… come on, we have to hurry!"

I ran through the portal, everyone else following. It wasn't long at all before we wound up at what used to be Creepy Steeple. Everything was destroyed, in ruins. In the center of the ruins was the unconscious body of Mario, and Mario's Nightmare form standing over him.

"Mario!" Goombella ran forward. "Oh thank the Stars, for a minute, I was terrified that-"

She was cut off as the Nightmare turned around and swung at her, snarling. She jumped back, eyes wide.

"Wha… Mario, what's wrong with you?" she cried out. I stared at the Nightmare with teary eyes.

"That's not Mario," I whispered, shaking my head. "Because of that last Limit Break… he lost his soul."

* * *

**Author's Note: Dun dun duuuuuuun! What will happen next? Answered tomorrow! Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	37. Chapter 37:

**Author's Note: Well, I bet you're wondering how I'm getting so many detailed chapters out so quickly, huh? Well, it's simple math, really. Me + Slender Man stories = Insomnia, and Insomnia + Laptop = Chapters. Anyway, here you go, the next chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 37: …**_

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"Oh…" I sat up and rubbed my head, incredibly sore. "Geeze…"

"Heh…" the other me was leaning back in the air. "Had a good nap?"

"Shut it…" I grumbled, shaking my head as I stood back to my feet. It was then I realized where exactly I was. I was standing back on my Dive to the Heart, but… the edges were glowing and breaking apart, fading into the nothingness.

"What in the world…?" I looked around. "What the hell's going on?"

"Oh, you don't know?" asked the other me. "Well let me just fill you in. The Genius you share your soul with lost his own. That's pretty much it."

"WHAT?" I staggered back, taken by surprise.

"Yeah," the other me stretched in the air. "So now we're fading into the nothingness. You, me, him…"

"Screw that!" I ran to the edge.

"What the… HEY!" the other me floated in front of me. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Jumping into the void to save that kid!" I shoved him out of the way and stood at the edge.

"You IDIOT!" the other me said. "If you jump into that void, you could wipe yourself from existence! If you're gone, then I'm gone, too!"

"Well, that's one less thing for the world to have to suffer through," I noted, bending my knees.

"Stop!" the other me said. "You don't know what you're doing! You could destroy yourself!"

"I'm going to wind up destroyed either way," I retorted. "If I'm going down, then I'm going down doing something."

With that, I leapt off the edge of the Dive and into the nothingness.

To tell you the truth, it really wasn't that unpleasant. It was cold, sure. And it felt like I was plummeting straight through deep water, only without the bends. I reached a point where time lost meaning, then space. I couldn't tell if time was even moving, or if in fact I was moving.

That's when … showed up*.

… was bizarre. It had no definite point in space, yet I could still navigate. There was no definite point in time, yet I wasn't frozen. There was no air, but I didn't need to breathe. There was no ground, yet my feet made contact with something that allowed me to walk.

I tried not to look around too much. I had a very strong feeling that if I observed … too much I'd crack. So, I ran, keeping my eyes forward. After I ran a million miles in a second… or wait, was it ten feet in a hundred years? Gah, it's not important anyway. What IS important is that after I ran, I came across a field of people. I froze as I stared at them. They were many different people, different species, different genders, but they all had one thing in common: They all had their eyes closed, coated in a thick layer of… something. No, nothing. No, it was… it wasn't…

I shook my head, forcing myself to not think about it. Running forward, I looked around until I came across the sleeping form of the Dream Keeper.

He looked nothing like his Avatar. He was human, obviously, I would say fourteen years old. He was about as tall as me, with pale skin. His hair was a dark brown, almost black, and very thick. It was like a Q-Tip, almost. He had a watch on his right wrist, and for clothes, he wore a blue t-shirt, blue jeans, and black and white shoes with a star sticker on the side that said "Converse" with high tops.

"There you are," I muttered, jumping next to him. As I looked at his sleeping form, something moved around me. I looked up to see the … change form into monsters, surrounding me.

These monsters were… okay, look, I can't do this. Make something up, I don't care, just… no. I can't tell you what they looked like because they didn't have a definite shape. Trying to describe them is like trying to give … a name: It's friggin' impossible.

They made a noise that was made of silence as they leapt at me without moving. I swear, the only possible way to make this place any stranger would be to add Goompa in the mix.

Anyway, I ducked under them and jumped on top of whatever was on or not on the Dream Keeper. Turning my hand into a dagger, I slashed it open with a hiss. Everything/Nothing shook as I dragged the Dream Keeper out and slung him over my shoulder.

"Exit… where's the exit…?" I muttered, breaking into a run as those things chased after me without moving from their spots. I tried returning to the point from which I entered, but I soon discovered that was where I was standing and wherever I went. Going up proved impossible, for as soon as I turned, I landed on the ground that wasn't there. I spun around to see a thing run at me, it's claws that weren't' really claws but fangs but it had no fangs bared but not really bared but-

"GET BACK, YOU BEAST!" I shouted. As soon as the last word came out of my mouth, the Beast took form into… well, a beast. … closed upon it as soon as it was named, and thus something, and it was gone.

…names ! Of course! Once an object's been given a name, … can't contain it! I closed my eyes and searched for my name, as I couldn't remember it. I don't know why, or in fact how. I did know, however, my legs started becoming transparent.

"No, I WON'T let myself fade!" I said, clenching my jaws as I thought hard. Then, not one, but two names came to me. I didn't want to take my chances and wait.

"WE ARE CORON AND PAX!" I cried out. A loud boom of sound and light and smell and every other sense blasted me as … was no longer there. We were now floating in a void of darkness. Panting, I leaned back, Pax still slung over my shoulders. Ahead, I saw a glowing sphere of light, and inside it, I saw Pax's Avatar lying on the ground as his friends fought against the Nightmare.

"Finally… the Dream…" I sighed as I floated in. We seemed to be spirits, as no one noticed us as we floated down.

"Oh…" Pax's eyes fluttered open. They were lidded and exhausted, however. "Coron…?"

"Yeah," I replied, floating to the Avatar.

"But… why?" he whispered. "Why are you helping me?"

"…we share a soul, moron," I said, hardening as I pulled him off my shoulders and into my arms, kneeling to put him back. "If you fade, I fade."

"I don't believe that…" he turned to me and smirked. "You know what I think? I think you did it because you thought it was the right thing to do."

"…" Saying nothing, I slid his soul back into the body. My hands, dipped in, were pulled in as well, and as I faded into his body, I blacked out.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

My eyes shot open. I was lying on the hard ground, staring at the sky. I was sore all over, as if someone just rammed into my body with an orb of pure darkness and shot the soul that was occupying that body out as my soul was lost due to the power behind the Limit Break…

…oh. Right.

Shaking my head, I sat up and rubbed it. I blinked and turned my head to see a Nightmare, crouched and facing my friends. They were all either wide eyed or teary eyed, staring at the Nightmare.

"Uh… hey, guys?" I waved at them. "What's going on?"

"MARIO!" they all spun to me, looking thrilled. Unfortunately, the Nightmare spun toward me as well. Growling, it leapt at me.

"WHOA!" I jumped back, getting on my feet as I summoned the Crystal Sword. The Nightmare blindly jumped forward with his claws held out, but one slice from the Crystal Sword made him vanish in a blast of dark smoke. The smoke took form of an orb, which sucked right into my Nightmare Hand.

"WOO!" I shook my head, the rush flowing through me again. "Now THAT'S a thrill!"

"Mario!" Goombella ran up to me. "Oh Stars… I was afraid… you lost your soul…"

"I did," I shrugged. "But Coron saved me."

"…wait, what?" Goombella blinked. "Coron. You ARE talking about the same guy I'm thinking of, right? The Nightmare who tried to kill us not even a week ago?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "That's the one."

I looked at my Nightmare hand and smiled.

"Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all…" I muttered. Suddenly, I felt like my ribs were being crushed as I was lifted in the air, so I came to conclude Flurrie was hugging me.

"Oh, I am so glad you're okay!" she said as she carried me back to town. "Come on, sugar! I'm so sorry for mistaking that imposter for you!"

Goombella sighed and shook her head, but she was still smiling with relief as she followed.

"Alright, Pax is okay!" Leon said, following. Vivian looked at the group nervously.

"Hey… come on, I'll walk with you," offered Koops to her. She looked at him and smiled.

"Yes… thank you," she nodded, and with that, Koops and Vivian followed side-by-side at the rear.

* * *

*"A name gives power, and defines an object. Those without names cannot be defined, therefore no one can hold power over it. This was seen with Doopliss, but as you can see, his name was eventually discovered. This is not the case with …. … has never had a name, and through its powers, it cannot be given one. … is indefinable, uncontainable. That is what makes it so dangerous. On a related note, … seems to also be the point where Nobodies are formed. Further research is required to understand why this is the case."

-Nozan

* * *

**Author's Note: Really short compared to yesterday's chapter, I know, but I was running out of time and all, so… yeah. Anyway, we're back on schedule, so until Monday, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**

**PS: Though updated late, I would like to point out that technically, this was posted on Friday. See, would I ever let you guys down?**


	38. Chapter 38: Four Sides, Ark 4

**Author's Note: Who started the whole Author's Note thing, anyway? I mean, seriously… you see it in every single fanfic on this site, right? I only do it because I saw everyone else do it, and I thought "Oh gee, that's a good idea" but that's probably the same reasoning of everyone else. But who was the one who started it all in the first place? Food for thought at least… aw well. Enjoy this chapter, involving Rougeport, jealousy, crushes, ships, doors, and… wait, that's all in the next chapter. Heheh… sorry. Well, this chapter has Peach and Bowser and Goombella and Nozan, so that's something, right? Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 38: Four Sides, Ark 4**_

* * *

_**Enter Peach:**_

* * *

"TEC?" I asked as I entered TEC's room. "You called?"

"YES, PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said. "I HAVE BEEN GOING OVER MY PERSONAL DATA FILES AND I HAVE REACHED A CONCLUSION… I WISH TO DO SOMETHING WITH YOU."

I blinked. This was kind of… abrupt. "Well… sure, TEC. What would you like? Dancing? Sneaking through the base? Messing with gels that effect physics?"

"NOT THIS TI-HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE GELS?" asked TEC.

"…you mean they're real?" I asked. "Wow, I just made that up in the spur of the moment…"

"WELL… IT MATTERS NOT," TEC said. "I WANTED TO DO A LITTLE QUIZ GAME WITH YOU."

"Quiz?" I asked. "Well, I don't know very much trivia, but… sure, why not?"

"THANK YOU," TEC said. "QUESTION 1: WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU COLLECT SEVEN CRYSTAL STARS?"

Before I could answer, he gave options for me. "A: YOUR WISH IS GRANTED. B: THE THOUSAND YEAR DOOR OPENS. C: A THOUSAND COINS APPEAR."

"Oh, B," I said, wondering why he gave me a list to choose from.

"CORRECT," TEC said. "QUESTION 2: WHAT IS THE GOAL OF GRODUS, LEADER OF THE X-NAUTS? A: TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. B: TO BE RICH. C: TO BECOME A SUPERHERO."

"A," I replied, crossing my arms and leaning back. Why was he quizzing me on these things?

"CORRECT," TEC said once again. "QUESTION 3: WHAT IS THE LEGENDARY TREASURE THAT WAITS BEHIND THE THOUSAND YEAR DOOR?"

"What?" I was taken aback by this. "TEC, what are you…"

"PLEASE, ANSWER THE QUESTION," TEC said, and it honestly did sound like he was begging. "A: 100,000,000 COINS. B: AN EXTREMELY RARE BADGE. C: AN ANCIENT DEMON'S SOUL."

Gulping, I answered first with what I hoped it was not: "C."

"CORRECT," TEC answered, making me pale. "QUESTION 4: WHAT DOES SIR GRODUS WISH TO DO WITH THE ANCIENT DEMON'S SOUL? A: CHERISH IT FOREVER. B: BRING IT BACK TO LIFE. C: HANG OUT WITH IT."

"…B," I said, my fear of what TEC was revealing to me being overshadowed by the silliness of some of the questions.

"VERY GOOD. NOW THE FINAL QUESTION," said TEC. "WHAT IS REQUIRED TO SEAL UP THE DEMON AGAIN? A: A LEGENDAR SWORD. B: A MAGIC SPELL. C: THE CRYSTAL STARS."

"C," I answered quickly.

"CORRECT," TEC said. "YOU MAY NOW USE THE COMMUNICATOR."

"…TEC, did you just-" I started.

"PLEASE QUICKLY USE THE COMMUNICATOR," TEC interrupted.

"…" I silently typed up my email and hit send.

"YOUR MESSAGE HAS BEEN SENT," TEC said. "PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR ROOM."

I walked back to my room, but I paused at the doorway and looked back.

"…thank you," I told him before walking through the door again.

"GOODNIGHT PRINCESS PEACH…" the lights dimmed.

* * *

_**Enter Bowser:**_

* * *

I. HATE. WATER. REALLY, I REALLY DO! It started out with us going BACK to Glitzville, because that's where Mario was last, you know? I thought he's probably be so greedy he'd stick around just to keep everyone's eyes on him, the dirty attention hog. So, my plan was we would fly up there and launch a surprise attack just like last time! Kammy dealt out all the details, but I didn't really pay much attention as I took off to Glitzville! And THAT'S when my flier broke. Boy, did I scream when I fell! Er… screamed in a very brave fashion, I mean! And I cannon balled, too! Made a big splash, one that would have won me gold at the Olympics! But anyway, I was stuck on… I mean, walking on the ocean floor BECAUSE I FELT LIKE IT, and I walked forward through the ocean. I must have walked for MILES, but I didn't mind one bit! Not even when the Bloopers ganged up on me! Because… they never really ganged up on me in the first place! I just made it LOOK like that to give them a fair chance! Then, I used my awesome karate skills to beat them all down! Ha, that'll teach you to mess with the Koopa King! I made my way through a pipe and back to Rougeport, trying to shake the water out of my shell. Kammy flew back around then, rubbing in my face how fun Glitzville was. If I WANTED to know, I would have ASKED you, you old bat! So, I did her a favor and burnt her just for getting on my nerves! Then, I went back home to dry myself off and take a long nap with some hot cocoa. But I swear, one day, that Mario is gonna GET IT!

* * *

_**Enter Nozan:**_

* * *

"Hi Nozan!" Tom said cheerfully, walking in with a plate full of coffee. "I know you've been staying up to watch, again, so I decided… are you okay?"

I was still staring wide-eyed at the screen. My face was apparently pale.

"He… just… they… and the…" I stuttered.

"Yes?" Tom set the coffee down next to him.

"The Dream Keeper… he just lost his soul… and then the Nightmare pulled him back out from …!" I managed to spit out.

"The Dream Keeper lost his-wait, what?" Tom asked "What's …?"

"Long story," I waved my hand. "Not important."

"I think it's important!" Tom said. "And why …? Why not just call it something like …?"

He gasped, grabbing his throat.

"…?" he asked. "No wait, uh… …. …!"

"THAT'S why you can't call it something else," I pointed.

"Freaky…" Tom nodded.

"Right… anyway, the Dream Keeper, he just lost his soul not twenty minutes ago," I continued. "And the Nightmare that lives inside him… he just willingly threw himself into … and brought him back."

"…why?" Tom asked. "Nightmares don't have souls, he wouldn't have had any reason to do it."

"On the contrary, if the Dream Keeper's soul was lost, the Nightmare would be as well," I answered. "But… what I don't get is HOW he survived … in the first place. He should have just faded into it just like all the other Nightmares before him."

I continued to stare at the screen, the shock having worn off. I was going over how in the world it was possible for a Nightmare to survive.

"Well… um… okay, I'll just… goodbye…" Tom shuffled out of the room, but I didn't pay any attention to him. Grabbing a cup, I sipped the coffee as I continued to work.

* * *

_**Excerpt from Goombella's Journal:**_

* * *

What is it about Mario? Geeze, I shouldn't even be thinking things like this. I'm fourteen for Star's sakes, and I have no idea how old Mario is! But… I can't help feeling, whenever I'm with him, he just feels younger than he really is. And his eyes… if I just went by his eyes, I would swear he was my age.

I can't stop thinking about him, either. When I thought his soul was lost forever, I was just… well, to be frank, I was terrified. I honestly did care deeply about whether or not he would come back.

GAH, I HAVE TO STOP THIS. Get. Over. Him. Goombella.

I need sleep. Maybe some REM will help me relax. But I hope it won't be like the time when I had a dream where Mario and I- {The rest is scratched out}

* * *

**Author's Note: Short, I know, but Wednesday and Friday's chapters will make up for it! 'Till then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out to play Half-Life! Er, I mean… write! Yes, that's it! Heheh…**


	39. Chapter 39: The Old Bobomb

**Author's Note: So tomorrow I have to drive in to put in a job application for Taco Bell… God, why can't I just publish my children's book, make a butt-load of money, and never have to work until after I graduate college, and then in my dream job of programming video games? Aw well, a man can dream… Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 39: The Old Bob-omb**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

The stars shined up in the night sky. I was sitting on the docks of Rougeport, staring at the night sky. The images of the day passed through my mind… absorbing the Crystal Star, showing off the map, learning we had to go to an island… so we decided tomorrow, we would find a ship and set off on it.

Well, technically today. I'm was fairly certain it was sometime around 2 AM by then. But for the strangest reason, I could not manage to force myself to sleep. I sighed and stared down at my feet, dangling above the polluted waters of Rougeport. My eyes fell on my Nightmare hand, and I lifted it to stare.

"Mario?" a voice asked. I turned to see Vivian walking up to me.

"Oh… hey Vivian," I waved. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Nightmares don't have to sleep…" she replied, standing near me. "Er… may I…?"

"Of course," I said, scooting over and patting the dock. She gently sat down and dangled her legs… er, tail… whatever that thing that connects her to the ground, over the water.

"So Nightmares don't have to sleep?" I asked. Vivian shook her head.

"Nightmares have no dreams, therefore there's no point in us sleeping," she replied. "To tell you the truth, it's kind of… lonely, without dreams."

"I can relate," I shrugged. "Most of my friends are in my dreams."

"What?"

"Nothing." I turned back to stare at the dark horizon. It was impossible to tell where the ocean ended and the sky began.

"So you're saying Nightmares don't have to sleep…" I stared at my Nightmare hand. "And I'm finding myself requiring less and less sleep recently…"

"It-it doesn't mean you're completely a Nightmare!" Vivian said, shaking her head. "Maybe your human portion has just adjusted to the Nightmare in you!"

"Hope you're right…" I shook my head. "Hey… Vivian?"

"Yes?" asked Vivian.

"You're a Nightmare, so… you know how to use your Nightmare powers, right?" I asked.

"I do know how to manipulate my innate abilities, yes," nodded she.

"Then can ya teach me?" I asked, standing up.

"What…?" Vivian blinked up at me.

"Well you know everything about your body, and I only know about my hand," I said, poking said Nightmare Hand. "And even that bit's debatable. Plus, we have all night without sleep ahead of us, so it's the perfect time for us to do it, too."

"Um… well, I don't know…" Vivian rubbed the back of her head. "I mean, I'm not sure how good of a teacher I would be…"

"Please?" I asked, crossing my hands in a pleading pose. "Pretty please? With sugar on top?"

"…oh fine," sighed Vivian, defeated. "First, let's talk about how to…"

* * *

"Oh, THERE you guys are!" Leon said as we entered the Inn. "Where've you been?"

"Practicing some Nightmare powers!" I said, flexing my left hand.

"…you didn't need to sleep at ALL?" asked Goombella, raising an eyebrow.

"What can I say?" I shrugged, jumping into a seat. "I guess I'm just absorbing all the perks that come with being a Nightmare."

"You sure you should be talking about stuff like that in public?" asked a man with a shaggy beard near me.

"Oh don't worry, Iuka already knows and-AUGH!" I jumped away in shock, landing in Flurrie's arms. "Who are you?"

"Name's George T. Hobo, at your service," the man said with a bow of his head as he offered me a card. I took it and read:

George T. Hobo

Special skills: Hiding and scavenging

Current employers: Toad Shop, Rougeport

Phone #: Don't got one

Home: The alley way behind the Inn

"…I didn't know hobos had business cards," I blinked.

"Lot of people don't," shrugged George. "That's why it's comedy gold when I pull them out."

"…right," I said. "Er… Flurrie? You can let go now."

"Oh, of course Mario," said Flurrie, but she seemed slightly reluctant to let me go.

"Right then…" I said, patting my overalls straight. "So, we have any leads on where to get a boat?"

"Yeah, actually," Goombella said.

"Really? Great!" I said. "So, who are we riding a boat with?"

"That would be me!" a voice nearby said.

"AH!" I jumped back again. "Where do you people come from?"

"So sorry, allow me to introduce myself," the man said, tucking a crystal skull under his arm and offering the other to shake my hand. "I am Flavio, captain of the S.S. Flavion!"

"I'm Mario, captain of… well, nothing really," I said, taking his hand and shaking it. "So you're willing to take us to the island?"

"Are you kidding?" asked Flavio. "Legends say that island is FULL of treasure! I'm more than willing to take you with me to the island!"

"Alright!" I said.

"But… there is a SLIGHT catch," Flavio said.

"…oh, what's the catch?" I blinked.

"I need a crew, so you'll have to gather about twenty or so men for me," Flavio said quickly. "Thanks so much for your understanding, I'll be leaving now, bye!"

With that, he was gone.

"…um," blinked Koops.

"Well it couldn't have been easy, right?" asked Goombella, jumping down from her seat. "Otherwise that wouldn't have been fun at all."

"Well that's one way to look at it!" I replied, standing up as well. I turned to George and Iuka. "Hey, would you two like to be part of a ship crew?"

"Sure, why not?" shrugged George. "Wait though… I should clear it with Iuka fir-"

"YES!" Iuka jumped up, her eyes big and sparkly. "I would love to travel on a boat with you!"

"…okay then, we're in!" George said.

"Great… okay then, we'll meet you at Rougeport docks!" I waved to them as I left the Inn with my friends.

"That girl has got some issues," said Leon. "I'm really sorry, that probably sounds bad, but c'mon, she has a crush on Pax's hand! If that's not weird, I don't know what is!"

**She really does need to get over me,** a voice in my head said.

"Yeah… wait, what?" I paused for a minute.

"What's wrong, Mario?" asked Goombella.

"A voice in my head just said something," I replied without thinking.

"…" Everyone stared at me.

"…gotcha," I managed to smirk, moving forward. "Freaked you out for a minute there though, didn't I?"

"Geeze, don't do that!" sighed Goombella, but she continued to follow me.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

I was floating in dark unconsciousness, watching what Pax was going through take place.

"She really does need to get over me," I said, rolling my eyes.

_Yeah… wait, what? _Pax paused for a minute.

"Hey!" a voice shouted. I turned around and widened my eyes…

…which made me open my eyes, back awake again. I was lying on my back on my Dive to the Heart, the other me floating above.

"Congratulations," he said. "You're not dead. I guess that counts for something around here."

"Eh… what…?" I shook my head and sat up. "Was that another one of your damned tests?"

"No, trust me," the other me said. "MY tests just try to get you out of the way so I can take over your body. What you just did would have killed me if you failed."

"…wait a minute, what?" I asked, turning my head to face him and glaring.

"That whole fear thing almost worked, too," shrugged the other me, floating in the air lazily. "A little longer and I would have cracked you like a pistachio."

"I… I wasn't afraid!" I defended.

"Would you like to go back there?" the other me smirked.

"…" I didn't give him the satisfaction of an answer.

"Thought not…" The other me smirked and floated through the air. "Anyway, I think I figured out a solution that works out for one of us."

"One of us. Right." I stood back on my feet, dusting myself off.

"Are you ready to relive some of the worst moments in your miserable life? Because I sure am!" the other me said in a taunting voice, as if he were talking to a dog.

"Look," I said, crossing my arms, "either show me the door or shut the hell up."

The other me rolled his eyes and floated back, pointing to a door at the edge of the Dive.

"Thank you, little bastard child of my psyche," I nodded to the other me. He growled as I stepped through the door.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Alright, I think we've gathered an alright crew," I nodded, wiping some sweat off my brow.

"Ah," Flavio noticed, "been working hard, I see?"

"No, just got really hot all of a sudden, it'll pass," I shrugged off. "Anyway, when can we ship off-"

"Wait!"

We turned to face a man who looked EXACTLY like Crump, only poorly disquised in a sailor suit.

"Hi… I'm Four-Eyes," he waved. "I would like to come on your boat."

"…really?" asked Goombella. "Four-Eyes?"

"…yes," he nodded.

"And you're some guy we've never met before and probably has no background history at all, and you just want to randomly come on our boat with no experience or reason?" she continued.

"Well… yeah," Four-Eyes (totally Crump) replied.

"…I can't believe we're supposed to believe this!" Flurrie said.

"And yet we DO!" Goombella nodded. "Stars, we're stupid!"

"Come on board, man I totally trust!" said Flavio, walking Four-Eyes onto the ship with his arm wrapped around his shoulders.

"…okay, screw the script, I'm going to add-lib here," Goombella said. "Let's just all say Flavio is the stupid one and we all know it's Crump, but we can't do a thing about it. That way we don't all seem like complete and utter idiots."

"Sounds fair…" nodded Koops.

"Okay, all fourth-wall breakage aside…" I said. "I think that's everyone, Flavi-"

"Wait!" Flavio said. "We need a navigator!"

"…but I have the map," I said.

"Being a navigator is more than just following a simple map, silly!" laughed Flavio.

"It has GPS radar-like functions," I pointed out.

"…shut up and get me Admiral Bobbery," Flavio face-palmed.

* * *

"What?" a voice from Bobbery's house asked. "Who is it?"

"Uh, Mario," I replied. "Listen, we need you on a ship to-"

"No. Go away."

"But-"

"I SAID GO AWAY!"

"Alright, fine!" I said, backing away from the door. "Geeze…"

"Well… NOW what do we do?" asked Koops.

"Well… I think I overheard the owner of the Inn earlier talk about Admiral Bobbery," said Vivian. "Maybe he can help?"

"…great idea, Vivian!" I said.

* * *

"Yes… Bobbery and I were old friends," sighed Podley, the owner of the Inn we have never met until this very moment. "He's not wanting to come out to sea? Understandable…"

He turned to a window and sighed.

"He used to have a wife, you see," he explained. "Her name was Scarlette. The two of them were… madly in love. But Bobbery loved the sea, so Scarlette waited days or weeks on end for him to come back. Neither of them minded, though. Bobbery would always come back.

"But one cold winter… Scarlette caught a strange illness. It was minor at first, but it soon became serious. Soon, she was on her deathbed. Bobbery was out at sea at the time, you see, and did not know of what was going on. When he came back… it was too late. So now, he despises the ocean."

"Oh geeze… that's terrible…" I rubbed the back of my head. "Wish we didn't have to force this on him, but… we REALLY need him at the helm of a boat right now."

"Well… in that case, you'll have to give him this letter," Podley said, giving me a letter. "This was written by Scarlette years ago on her deathbed. I want you to deliver this to Bobbery."

"Alri… wait a minute!" Goombella said. "If you had this letter the whole time, why didn't you give it to him years ago and save him all these years of pain?"

"…shut up and deliver this letter to Bobbery," Podley replied.

* * *

"How many scene transitions does that make?" asked Leon.

"What?" I asked.

"Scene transitions… you know, those lines that move us from place to-"

"Shh!" Flurrie hushed. "He's not supposed to know!"

"Oh… right," nodded Leon.

"…know what?" I asked.

"Nothing!" all my friends said at once.

"…right." I turned back to the door and slid the letter under the door before knocking.

"I said I won't…" Bobbery's voice slowed as the sound of a letter picking up came. There were a few minutes of silence, followed by silent crying. Suddenly, the door opened, revealing a Bob-omb, 3/4ths my height and dark with a steering wheel for a ship for a wind-up key, a fuse that looked like a rope, a sailor's hat, an eyepatch, and a mustache that made Mario's look wimpy.

"Let's go," he said simply, marching toward the harbor without looking back at us. I assumed, because of the brief glimpse I caught, I saw his eyes tearing up. We followed quickly behind him.

* * *

"Let's SHOVE OFF!" Flavio said as anchor was raised and the large ship left Rougeport. "Tally-HO!"

I sat at the edge of the boat and looked at the place fade away into the distance. As I watched, I felt my left hand almost… itch, for some reason.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry for the late update, next chapter will offer back story and set up for the next ark, blah-blah-blah, Pax is out, Peace!**


	40. Chapter 40: Shipping

**Author's Note: Yes, I know this chapter came out a little late. Blame Half-Life: Opposing Force. Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 40: Shipping**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

I watched the waves splash against the side of the ship, the ocean constantly churning and moving…

…from the window of my room.

Let me take a moment to get this out of the way: The Ship breaks all logic of space. The outside of the ship looks like a tiny little thing, while on the inside it's big enough to fit 30 people. I wouldn't be very surprised at all if I found out Goompa had been the one to have built the ship out of cardboard from the plastic onion or something like that. And if you just imagined me saying this paragraph like Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation, then congratulations, you are now my best friend.

Enough of that for now, though. The reason I was in my room was because I felt REALLY ill. Like, flu-ill. I was sweating, shivering on my bed, and my Nightmare Hand constantly was clawing at something. A knock at my door interrupted my scratching into the wood of my bed.

"It's me, Vivian," Vivian's voice came from the other side. "Can I come in?"

"Uh, yeah… sure…" I nodded, shivering a bit. She quickly slipped in, closing the door behind her and looking at me in concern.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm-" I started coughing a bit. "…alright, I'm not fine. Just the flu or something, maybe something caught from the ocean. That happens, right? …right?"

"…you haven't infected anything, have you?" Vivian asked.

"No, why?" I asked.

"…well," she sighed, sitting on the edge of my bed. "You see, um… Nightmares have this thing programmed into them, where… they develop flu-like symptoms and slowly submit to their instincts the longer it takes for the to infect something."

"…wait, seriously?" I asked, alarmed. "Geeze, um… wow, okay. So how do you deal with it?"

"…excuse me?" blinked Vivian.

"Well, you don't infect people, right?" I asked. "But you're a Nightmare, so obviously you go through this kind of thing."

"…" Vivian looked down, seeming a bit hurt. I must have hit a nerve.

"Uh… look, you don't have to *cough* say anything if you don't want to," I told her, covering myself with the blankets. "You might want to leave though, don't want you catching murderous rage."

"…alright," Vivian said, standing up. "I'll tell people not to come in."

"Alright, thanks Vivi…" I started, but she was already out the door.

"…an," I finished, landing on my pillow and continuing to claw at the wood with my Nightmare hand.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

I leaned against the closed door to Mario's room and closed my eyes. What he had just said reminded me so much of the things Beldam said to me…

"_Broken!" "Worthless Nightmare!" "Garbage!" "You're nothing! You're worthless! You're SCUM!"_

"Vivian?"

My eyes opened to see Koops standing in front of me.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You seem a little…"

"Yeah… I'm fine…" I nodded, standing up.

"That's good," Koops smiled. "Hey, is Mario alright, though?"

"Oh, yes, he's fine, just fine!" I said nervously. "Yes, he just has a flu! A perfectly normal flu! A human flu! Something everyone gets!"

"…okay?" blinked Koops. "Well… anyway, it's getting pretty late. Tomorrow's when we should be arriving at the island too, according to Flavio."

"Oh… well, alright," I nodded.

"You might want to get some sleep," Koops advised. "We have a long day ahead of us."

"Oh, thanks, but… well, I really don't need the sleep," I said.

"Don't be silly, everyone-" started Koops.

"You don't understand, Nightmares LITTERALLY don't need the sleep," I clarified.

"Oh… well that explains what Mario said about absorbing the perks of being a Nightmare," Koops said. "Well anyway, I know Leon DOES need sleep, and he's been in the kitchen all day."

"Doing what?" I asked in curiosity.

"Listening to Admiral Bobbery tell some stories," Koops said. "He really gets into them."

"Oh… alright," I nodded. "Well, I think I'm going to go to my room and focus my powers."

"Alright, see you tomorrow then," smiled Koops, waving as we parted ways. I smiled back and waved at him as I walked to my room. Koops… he really is a nice Koopa.

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

_She has got to be the nicest Nightmare I've ever met, _I thought as I walked toward the kitchen. _…of course, I don't know many Nightmares, but of the few I do know, she's the nicest._

"…and then the great Blooper came out of the ocean, crying it's mighty cry!" Admiral Bobbery's voice came from the kitchen. I turned my head around the corner of the door frame to see him sitting on a chair, speaking to a small group of sailors, Leon sitting in the middle, paying full attention to him.

"What did you do then, Admiral Bobbery?" asked Leon, wide eyed.

"What did I… well what did you think I did, lad?" asked Admiral Bobbery, a twinkle in his old eye. "I barked the order to man the cannon! But as we reached for the ammo, WHAM! The Blooper's mighty tentacle slammed into the side, breaking a hole open in the side of the ship and leaving most of our supplies to fall into the ocean!"

A gasp came from the listeners as I quietly walked in, shuffling to the back.

"The ship was taking water fast, and the mates were going right to the dinghies!" continued the Admiral. "The water wasn't safe with that infernal beast in it though, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I loaded myself into that cannon and launched myself at the Blooper!"

"Did it hurt?" asked a Toad.

"Aye, but not nearly as much as that explosion hurt the Blooper!" Admiral Bobbery laughed. "I don't mean to brag, but in my younger days, I could make an explosion like you wouldn't believe! The ocean itself seemed to be in awe as the blast knocked the Blooper deep into the sea, never to be seen again! I swam to the dinghy already in the water and me mates pulled me in safely. Fortunately, land wasn't but a mile or so away, so we spent the rest of the night rowing until we hit land!"

Applause came from Admiral Bobbery's audience, Leon's being the most enthusiastic.

"Can you tell us another story?" Leon asked eagerly as everyone else cleared out, yawning and rubbing their eyes.

"Sorry, but it's getting a bit late now, don't you think?" asked Admiral Bobbery.

"Yeah, I guess…" sighed Leon, standing up. "Whoa, just suddenly got hit with a case of sleepiness."

"Oh, here," I said, picking up the Yoshi in my arms. "I'll get you to your room."

"Thanks Koops…" yawned Yoshi. "You're a good…"

He was unconscious within the next few seconds.

"Cute kid," Admiral Bobbery said, stepping down from the chair and heading out of the kitchen next to me.

"Yeah…" I nodded. "Well… goodnight, Admiral."

"Please, just call me Bobbery," he insisted.

"Well… alright, if you say so," I nodded. "Goodnight, Bobbery."

"Goodnight to you too, er… Kooper, was it?" asked Bobbery.

"Koops, sir," I nodded.

"Oh yes, Koops," Bobbery said. "Terribly sorry for the mix up."

"It's alright," I said. "The author mixes us up sometimes, too."

"…is it really safe to be breaking the Fourth Wall like that?" Bobbery asked, looking around.

"Don't worry," I assured him. "There are only two rules to it, anyway. One, give it about five chapters or so after massive fourth wall shattering before you go at it again, and two, don't let Mario know this is a book. Game, yes. Book, no."

"…you just told that to everyone who posts reviews about how he knows about the fourth wall now, didn't you?" asked Bobbery.

"…maybe," I replied.

"Alright kid, goodnight," Bobbery said, walking down the opposite corridor.

"Goodnight," I replied, walking to Leon's room to drop him off before hitting the hay myself.

* * *

_**Enter Bobbery:**_

* * *

I entered my room, closing the door behind me. Letting out a sigh, I turned around to the open letter at my desk. I knew what would happen to me if I read it… but I couldn't resist. I sat at the table and read it for what had to be the twentieth time.

"My Love: If you're reading this letter, then I am no longer by your side. Because fate has stepped between us, I have decided to write you this letter. If you're reading this, I must have passed away while you were out to sea… I can only assume that you will blame yourself for it, my sweet Bobbery. Although my life was short, you gave me more than a lifetime's worth of joy. Though you will mourn, I beg that you remember that time, like love, is a tide. You are one with the sea, as you were one with me. Do not lose both your life's loves."

I scooted away from the table so not to let my salty tears ruin the paper her perfect writing was on.

"Scarlette…" I whispered to myself. "You always were good with words."

"…come on, we better get back to bed," a voice said. I perked my head up and turned to the door to listen. The voice sounded like the wind spirit that came on the boat… I think her name was Flurrie?

* * *

_**Enter Flurrie:**_

* * *

"I know it's hard to resist the books that Flavio apparently only got to make the ship look nice," I said as I walked down the hall with Goombella, "but tomorrow's when we hit land! We need all the rest we can get!"

"I know, I'm sorry…" Goombella said. "Just, there's still so much we haven't learned about the Nightmares or the Thousand Year Door. What Peach emailed Mario about there being a demon behind it…"

"Goombella, Frankly's the one researching the door," I told her. "You need to rest so that you can kick some butt tomorrow. There'll probably be a bunch of baddies who will want to hurt my Mario, and I'm not letting that happen myself…"

Goombella smiled a little at this. "Yeah… you're right, I guess."

"You GUESS?" I scoffed. "I guess some people will just never recognize my genius!"

Goombella actually laughed at this, and I smiled as well. The two of us parted ways when we had to enter our rooms, and I secretly watched her go into her room to make sure she didn't sneak off to the library. Nodding to myself in satisfaction, I went into my bed where upon I immediately fell asleep. My reoccurring dream of that hunky plumber taking me to a romantic candlelight dinner on the Excess Express filled my mind…

* * *

_**Excerpt from Goombella's Journal:**_

* * *

Flurrie just made me stop researching. I understand she's only looking out for my health, but there's just so much we haven't learned yet! We've been on this ship for a few days now, and I noticed the past few days that Mario's health has been getting worse and worse. I'm almost sure it has something to do with that Nightmare hand of his.

…everything just seems to lead back to Mario, doesn't it? Mario this and Mario that. Mario and his mustache, those overalls, those… eyes. The ones I swear whenever I look into them I see a kid my age looking back at me…

GAH! I need some fresh sea air to clear my head…

{The rest of the book is blank}

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Goombella?" I asked, blinking at the Goomba, standing near the edge of the boat. She turned to face me.

"Oh… hey, Mario," she said as I walked over. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Needed some fresh air," I said, sniffling. "You?"

"Same, you alright?" Goombella asked in concern.

"Oh yeah, just a flu," I shrugged off. "Nothing big."

"…you're sure it has nothing to do with that Nightmare hand of yours?" Goombella asked.

"Uh… yeah, I'm sure," I lied.

"Well alright then…" Goombella said, turning back to look at the dot of land in the distance.

"Keelhaul Key…" she said. "Where the next Crystal Star is."

"You know… funny pattern here," I said, leaning on the railing next to her. "We're on Crystal Star five now, and it's on an island, when in my last adventure, Star Card five was on an island."

"Huh," said Goombella. "I guess history has a funny way of repeating itself, huh?"

Before my eyes flashed… HER face. The pink shell, the fuse, the…

"Mario?" Goombella interrupted my thoughts.

"Huh?" I shook my head and looked at her. "Oh yeah, yeah…"

Goombella stared at my eyes for a few moments.

"…why?" she asked. "Why do your eyes look like that?"

"Excuse me?" I blinked.

"Your eyes, they… don't look like the eyes of Mario," Goombella said. "They look like the eyes of a fourteen year old kid."

This completely took me by surprise.

"I don't… uh, I don't have any idea what you're talking about," I shook my head.

"Mario," Goombella said, "I thought I was one of your closest friends."

"You are!" I said. "…oh, don't play that card!"

"Then why won't you tell me?" she asked, playing the card.

"…you wouldn't believe me if I did," I sighed, staring at the ocean.

"Try me," Goombella said stubbornly. I looked back at her.

"Well… *Cough* You see-" I started, but was interrupted as the ship suddenly lurched forward and halted.

"What the…" Goombella blinked up. "AUGH!"

The ship was soon surrounded by blue flames with yellow angry eyes. They soon invaded the ship and caught fire to everything they touched. Panicked screams came from the inside of the ship.

"Embers!" Goombella said. "Mario, whatever you do, do NOT look them directly in…"

She turned around to come face to face with an Ember.

"The… eyes…"

Her own clouded over as she fell to the ground, unconscious. I quickly grabbed her with my left arm and kicked the Ember…

…which I regretted a minute later as my boot caught on fire.

"AUGH!" I quickly stomped it out with my other foot, and turned to see the ship was quickly sinking. I didn't have much time to think, so I did the first thing that came to me:

"MURARBENET NORDAN OICAFETAP!" I cried out, the words Vivian taught me to use to open a dark portal. As a black portal opened up, I gripped Goombella tightly in my arm and ran through. An ember, unfortunately, slammed into my back, filling me with so much horrible pain that I blacked out as soon as I entered the Portal.

* * *

I woke back up on a beach, next to Goombella. We were near a cliff, and behind us was a tropical forest.

"Oh…" I moaned, sitting up and rubbing my head. The odd thing was I felt a little less sick, too… maybe it was just a Flu.

"Mario…?" moaned Goombella, sitting up. "What… what happened?"

"Embers," I said. She groaned.

"I can't believe I was so stupid to fall for that cliché hypnotic knock out trick!" she said.

"At least you didn't get burned in the back and knocked out," I reasoned.

"Well that would have at least left me with some digni…" she started, but then she coughed violently, leaving blood on the sand.

"Oh my God, Goombella…!" I said, leaning forward and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"It's fine, it's…" Goombella started, but she gasped at the blood. I looked down and gasped too, because the blood… was black.

"What the…" Goombella turned and her eyes widened. "Oh my Stars…"

"What?" I asked. Goombella turned and lifted the side of her shirt (get those dirty thoughts out of your heads perverts) to show four black spots, slowly growing. I realized with horror that I had been the one to put those spots in her. When I gripped her tightly to run through the portal… I didn't realize…

It all added up. With utter terror, I had realized something.

Goombella was infected.

And I had been the one who had infected her.

Oops.

* * *

**Author's Note: The chapter name is actually named after being on a SHIP, for those of you like Fanny who enjoy shipping as in LinkxMidna. Well anyway, until Wednesday, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	41. Chapter 41: Stranded

**Author's Note: AT&T is going to get a real nasty letter from us soon… eh? Oh, you guys. Sorry, just griping over my internet modem. See, it's been screwing up for the past few weeks now, but only after we installed a new modem, as per AT&T's suggestion, has it gotten a lot worse. Now there are times where we just can't access anything connected to the internet at all. This is really bad for me because now I can't play Half-Life due to the fact I can't connect to Steam! But… I digress. You guys came to read about hapless Paper Mario characters work their way through an island they're stranded on, not me griping about the internet. Well, I better get to the chapter now before this Author's Note takes up most of the chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 41: Stranded (I REFUSE to make a Lost reference!)**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

Five days had passed since Goombella's infection. I was sitting on the beach, a little bit away from the small hut I made for Goombella to rest in. I leaned back and stared into the starry sky, the dark space expanding in front of me.

"…if I had just grabbed her with my right arm instead," I muttered to myself, glaring at my Nightmare hand. "What good are you, anyway? You… *Cough* You infected my friend, absorb the darkness of every baddie we beat, and to top it all off, you're making me sick! Literally!"

"And here I thought you just caught a tropical flu or something," Goombella said behind me. I turned to see her slumping over.

Thankfully, the infection was spreading really slowly, so Goombella was still herself. She looked rough, hair messed up and barefoot, with a good chunk of her left side pitch black. Her left foot, also caught in the infection, was clawed, and seemed to kneed at the sand with a mind of its own, as if wanting Goombella to not move. Personally, I agreed with it.

"Goombella, what are you doing?" I asked, standing up. "You shouldn't be out of bed."

"Right, I'm just going to stay still for weeks and weeks inside a cooped up hut," Goombella rolled her eyes. "What do you take me for, Mario?"

"I take you for an infected Goomba that seriously needs to rest," I replied, picking her up. "C'mon *cough* now."

She didn't struggle in my grip. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say she enjoyed being in my arms. As I placed her back into bed, I thought she looked a bit disappointed about me putting her down… but maybe that was just my imagination.

"…so that flu of yours IS because of that Nightmare hand?" asked Goombella. "I thought you told me on the boat…"

"Alright, I lied," I sighed, rubbing the back of my head. "Only because the truth would have freaked you out."

Goombella gave me that kind of look. You know the one I'm talking about.

"Mario," she said, "I'm Goombella, for Star's sake! You should know by now that it takes a lot to freak me out! …unless it has to do with any member of the arachnid family. If that's the case, then yeah, we have a problem."

"No, it's got *cough, cough* nothing to do with spiders," I said, pounding my chest to make it stop tickling.

"Then tell me," Goombella said, looking straight at me. I met her gaze for a moment and sighed.

"Alright…" I said. "Vivian told me that it could be some kind of reaction to not infecting anything. My Nightmare half should react to it by developing flu-like symptoms and succumbing to my Nightmare instincts. Luckily, the later hasn't happened yet.

"Well yeah, obviously," Goombella replied. "But wait, you infected me-"

"Don't remind me," I said, burying my face in my hands. "Goombella, I'm REALLY sorry, you know that. I didn't mean…"

"Let me finish," Goombella sighed. "If you infected me, shouldn't that mean your flu should be gone?"

I blinked at this. "Oh, I… huh. You're right."

"Of course I'm right!" Goombella mock laughed. I laughed along with her, but was interrupted by my body attempting to hack up a lung.

"Oh… sorry…" I muttered, rubbing my chest and blinking the pained tears out of my eyes.

"Maybe you should be the one resting on this bed…" Goombella said.

"No, you… you need it," I said, coughing a bit. "I'll just sleep on the ground again."

"Mario…" started Goombella.

"Really, I don't mind," I insisted, laying down and getting my breathing under control. "Good… goodnight, Goombella. We really need… some… rest…"

I blacked out right about then, the combination of staying up late and my flu knocking me out quickly.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

"_Singi,_" I said, pointing at the dying fire. It instantly roared back to life, and I pulled my arm back to hug my knees to my chest. I looked around at our small group sitting around the fire. There was Leon, that Four-Eyes fellow, and Koops. We were stuck in the jungle for the past five days, so…

…you look confused. Oh right, I forgot to say how we all got off the ship! I'm sorry, I forgot…

Well… As the ship went up in flames, I panicked and ran out into the hall. Koops was there, trying to open Leon's door, which was in flames. I used my abilities to absorb the fire, and Koops caught Four-Eyes and made him kick the door down. Leon was burnt and scared, but alive, in the corner. Gathering everyone together, I created a Portal and everyone ran through. Before I left, though, I focused and created a few other portals across the ship for people to escape through.

We arrived in the middle of the jungle before I collapsed from the exhaustion of creating all those portals. I woke up sometime later to see Leon healing quickly, and the four of us have been wandering this jungle since. We saw a lot of monsters, but thanks to Koops and Leon, we always manage to keep them down. Four-Eyes usually stays in the back of the group, and I… well, I'm never really helpful when it comes to battle. I know Koops told me different, and Leon complimented me on my ability to conjure fire at will, but they could just be saying that…

"Hey, Vivian?" asked Koops, breaking me from my train of thought.

"Yes?" I asked, turning to him. His eyes sparkled in the light of the fire nearby.

"Are you sure that you're a Nightmare?" he asked. I was taken aback.

"Excuse me…?" I blinked.

"Well, it's just…" Koops twiddled his thumbs. "You just seem too nice to be a real Nightmare."

"That's only because I have a soul," I told him.

"So how come you have one?" asked Koops. "Most Nightmares don't have them, do they?"

"…" I looked down, remembering how I was infected, and how…

"You… look, if it's painful, you don't have to tell me," Koops said. "It's okay, just-"

"No," I shook my head. "I… need to get it off my chest."

I checked to see if Leon was asleep. I know he loves stories, but this one… Thankfully, he was, so I turned to Koops.

"This story is… well… just… please, forgive me if I stop all of a sudden," I asked Koops.

"Oh, of course," he nodded. I smiled at this.

_You're the real nice one…_ I thought. I closed my eyes, took a breath, and told him my story, the story unfolding in front of me as I told it.

* * *

_I lived in a small town with my sisters, Marilyn and Beldam. We lived in a small house with our Mom as kids. I never knew my Dad, Mom told me he left when I was still little._

_We all went to the same school. It was one of those schools that just has one school for everyone between Kindergarten and Twelfth Grade, so we saw each other often. It was nice with Marilyn, she would always stop to give me a hug. She was one of those girls that you just couldn't hate. Everyone in the town knew her, and I remember hearing the kids as they passed. "That's her," they would say. "That's Marilyn's little sister." And I remember feeling so proud being related to her._

_But then, there was Beldam._

_She always resented me. She blamed me for Dad leaving, though she never said it. She also got really mad whenever I did well on a test or got the blue ribbon at our science fair. I remember being eight years old or something and overhearing Marilyn and Beldam arguing. Marilyn seemed to be defending me, saying things like "She's only a kid!" or "You don't have to be so freaking jealous!" but Beldam was still yelling things like "I'm the oldest, I should be the best!" I was confused, but also really sad. I thought I did something wrong that made my older sister mad at me. So I swore I would do great to make her proud._

_Marilyn was always proud of what I did, and I still remember the sight of her face lighting up when she saw that A on my test and calling Mom over to see as one of the fondest sights of my memory. But Beldam… she was never impressed. In fact, the better I did, the more she seemed to want to avoid me. Once, she even snatched a really hard test I did well on and ripped it to pieces before storming out. Marilyn hugged me as I cried._

"_Why?" I asked, sniffling. "Why does Beldam hate me?"_

"_Oh Vivian…" said Marilyn, wiping a tear from my face. "She doesn't hate you, she just… has some things she has to sort out in her life."_

_And I believed her. For a few years anyway._

_During high school, I met this young man. I thought he was the man of my dreams, but… well… as time went on, he got more… possessive. He started hitting me when he got angry, but I didn't blame him. Marilyn was worried when she saw me come home with bruises, but I told her I just fell down the stairs. I hid them from Mom, I was really afraid she would say I couldn't see him anymore._

_One day, Marilyn pulled me aside. I was terrified she was going to call out my boyfriend, but…_

"_Vivian, have you noticed Beldam lately?" she asked. "Does she seem… off to you?"_

_I blinked and mentally sighed in relief._

"_I don't know," I told her. "She's just been avoiding me for the past month."_

"_Hm…" Marilyn pat my shoulder, and I had to resist wincing as her hand came close to my face. "Alright, thanks."_

"_No prob, sis," I told her. I turned to leave, but…_

"_Vivian," called Marilyn. "…I'm your sister, you know that? If there's ever anything you want to talk to me about, I'll be here for you, alright?"_

"…_alright," I nodded before leaving._

_A few weeks later, Mom died. A lot of people showed up at her funeral, but Beldam was absent. When I noted this at the reception, Marilyn's face… I've never seen her so angry before in my life._

"_Can you get home by yourself today?" she asked me. "I need to have a talk with big sis."_

"_Okay…" I nodded, watching Marilyn storm off._

_I met my Boyfriend when I got home, and… well, he demanded to know about a male friend I made at school. Feeling emotionally exhausted from the funeral, I told him curtly that I could make friends if I wanted to. That was a very bad choice. After he finished beating me, he threatened I would be sorry and left. Whimpering, I crawled to my room and climbed into my bed. The house felt so empty… Beldam had moved out awhile ago, and Marilyn was gone to talk to her, and Mom… I cried myself to sleep that night._

_When I woke up, I saw my Boyfriend leaning over me. He told me that he gave me fair warning and had a knife at my throat. He said if I did what he said, he wouldn't torture me as bad. He then… he… he raped me…_

…

…_after that, he… he took out some rope and tied me to the bed before… setting the house on fire as he left. I was left in my room, the walls going in flames. I screamed for help, tears going down my face. The fire hurt so much, burning my flesh. I looked up to see… Nightmares. My sisters._

_It turned out Beldam had been delving into black magic and used it to turn herself into a Nightmare. I don't know what that has to do with Mom, and I hope I never have to find out. When Marilyn went to talk to her, she was caught by surprise and infected. She was now on a leash, snarling in a feral mode._

"_See this?" sneered Beldam. "This is the girl everyone in town loves. Pity she's nothing more than a beast, huh?"_

"_HELP ME!" I begged. "PLEASE, HELP!"_

"_Mm… nah," Beldam leaned back and watched as I begged and cried, the fire burning my flesh. As I was approaching death, the burns on me making me unrecognizable, Beldam let Marilyn loose on me. I don't know which hurt worse, feeling her claws dig into my chest, or knowing it was my sister and best friend who did it. The woman who only wanted to help me, who stopped in the halls to give me hugs, who always defended me when someone hurt me… was now trying to kill me._

_The infection spread quickly, and all my emotions at that moment exploded into a rage. I just saw red and… well, the next thing I remember is waking up with Beldam staring at me._

"_You're awake," she said, picking me up and dragging me by the wrist. "Come."_

_She dragged me through our ruined town. Every building was destroyed, and every person, man, woman, and child, was slaughtered._

"_This was all done by you," Beldam said, turning and sneering at me. "How's it feel? Knowing all of this is your fault?"_

"…_no," I shook my head, dropping to my knees. "NO! THIS… I couldn't have…"_

_Beldam kicked me in the side, breaking some of my ribs._

"_Mother always DID like you best!" she said, kicking me while I was down. "If only she could see her little angel now!"_

_I sobbed as she continued to beat me. Nightmares heal quickly, though, so she could easily just pick me up again and beat me up. That's how she kept me in line… she would punish me with pain._

_Marilyn was a lot more difficult to control. When she finally came to her senses, she fought. And she was a strong Nightmare, so she fought hard. Eventually, Beldam had to drug her. And that's how she's managed to keep a control on her… she's kept her in a drugged state, killing her brain and making her just a grunting hunk of Nightmare flesh._

_Both Marilyn and I kept our souls after Beldam infected us, but none of us are sure why. Beldam tried infecting other people, and all of them kept their souls as well. I didn't like it when Beldam couldn't figure something out, because she got angry. And when she got angry, she would hit me._

_I don't know why I have my soul, but I do know…_

_Beldam hates me._

_Marilyn's drugged._

_Mom's dead._

_I killed everyone else I ever loved…_

…_I'm alone._

* * *

I stared ahead into the fire, everything seeming blurred by the tears in my eyes. I suddenly felt a pair of arms wrapped around me, and I turned to see Koops hugging me.

"Vivian, you're not alone," he shook his head, shivering from contacting my ice cold flesh. "You have Mario, and Goombella, and Leon, and Flurrie…"

"…and you?" I asked, hugging him back.

"Yeah… and me," he nodded. "I'm… I'm sorry you had to go through all of that…"

"…Koops?"

"Yeah?"

"…that's the first time anyone has ever said that to me."

I closed my eyes and leaned on his shoulder. Even though we were in the middle of a jungle, stranded on an island… for the first time in a long time, I felt safe…

* * *

**Author's Note: Originally, I was going to have Flavio, Flurrie and Bobbery appear after this part, but the shift of tone would be so extreme in that case that I decided it would be better just to start next chapter with that and lead on with it. Anyway, feel free to give Vivian an imaginary hug, and until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	42. Chapter 42: Saving Admiral Bobbery

**Author's Note: …you know, funny thing. This entire ark… actually, the whole rest of the book, is already written out in my head, so the only thing I really have to give much thought to are these Author's Notes. And, you know, the dull things like eating and sleeping. I've been meaning to cut back on those things so I have more time to write, but my mom and my friends and my therapist all call me crazy for that. Imagine, me? Crazy? Oh where do these people get it from… anyway, enjoy the answer to life, the universe, and everything! Oh, and my chapter would like some attention as well.**

* * *

_**Chapter 42: The answer to life, the universe, and everything**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

Suddenly the number 42 came out of the ocean, saved us all, and burst open the Thousand Year Door in a very action-y scene, destroying the evil demon and taking me back home where I lived happily, winning the lottery and spending the rest of my life writing stories. The end.

* * *

**Author's Note: …what? Okay, okay, I get it! Stop throwing those rocks at me! Geeze, can't even take a joke…**

* * *

_**Chapter 42: Saving Admiral Bobbery**_

* * *

_**Enter Ryan… er, I mean Bobbery:**_

* * *

"I can't believe it!" grumbled Flavio, stomping through the jungle alongside Flurrie and me. "Six days, stuck in a jungle… not even noon yet and it's already way too hot for my taste… is this how a rich, handsome man is supposed to meet his end?"

"I'm not sure," I replied, glaring ahead. "What was the answer we gave to ya THE LAST FIVE HUNDRED BLOODY TIMES YOU ASKED?"

"Hey, I hired you, I can un-hire you!" Flavio warned.

"Oh right, so sorry," I said in a mock apology. "Would you rather wander these jungles alone then?"

"…you're hired again!" Flavio said, looking around in fear at the jungle around him.

"That's what I thought, then," I nodded, turning back ahead. Flurrie sighed, looking around.

"I think we've been here before…" she said. "We can't just go in circles… Mario's waiting for us."

"Mario and every other member on the ship," I replied with a sigh. "Don't worry though, with any luck they went through one of those strange black portals and wound up somewhere on this island."

"Where DID those portals come from, anyway?" asked Flurrie. "They looked like the ones the Nightmares use to move around…"

"Nightmares?" I blinked. "Those are those black creatures you told me about around the campfire a few nights ago, aye?"

"Aye… uh, I mean yes," nodded Flurrie.

"…I have NO idea what you two are talking about, and frankly, I don't really care!" said Flavio, marching forward. "All I care about is finding that treasure!"

"Yes… we can very easily see that…" I muttered, then blinked as we reached a bridge hanging over a cliff. At the bottom were rapids of water.

"A river!" I said. "Perfect, we can follow this to the beach!"

"Beach?" asked Flavio. "What are you talking about? Look over there!"

He pointed to the other side of the bridge, where a palm tree could be seen. On the other side was a rock wall with two skulls next to it.

"That's it!" Flavio said excitedly. "That's where the treasure lies!"

He ran across the bridge to get to the cliff face.

"Oi, wait up you idiot!" I shouted, chasing after him. "You have no idea what kind of forces are guarding that thing!"

As I caught up with him, I noticed that I couldn't hear Flurrie coming behind me. I turned my head to see her collapse after looking one of those fire spirits in the eyes.

"Oh bugger," I groaned, getting into a fighting stance as we were surrounded on all sides by more fire spirits.

"Ah, not these things again!" cried Flavio. "Why didn't you talk me out of going to that cliff face, Bobbery? Honestly, I know you're wanting the treasure, but don't be so greedy abou-"

"TAKE HIM, HE'LL LAST LONGER!" I finally shouted to the spirits, nodding to Flavio. "HE'S GOT A CRYSTAL SKULL IN HIS BAG, TOO!"

The spirits all turned their heads to face him.

"I hate you," growled Flavio.

"The feeling is mutual," I replied bitterly.

* * *

_**Enter Iuka:**_

* * *

"Geeze, this jungle is deep," said George, pulling apart vegetation to open a path ahead. We were deep in a jungle, after being pulled out of the burning ship by our new companion…

"I think it would look better in orange!" Goompa said, riding on a miniature Giraffe. "I should try it!"

"This island reminds me a lot of my old home," I sighed as Goompa stood on his tongue and used his feet to spray paint all the vegetation we passed pink with purple polka dots. "It's a good thing the Cannibalization isn't here…"

"Oh yeah, I remember Cannibalization XIII," nodded George. "I think they're just Cannibalization XII now, though."

"Yes, thanks to Coron," I nodded. "Oh Coron… why are you trapped?"

"Well, he was kinda evil," George shrugged. "Maybe he just messed with the wrong guy?"

"He is NOT evil!" I defended. "Just… misguided!"

"…right," said George, but I could tell he didn't really believe me.

"Is fire in a forest?" asked Goompa suddenly.

"Well… sometimes fire can start, yes," I replied with a nod.

"Hows 'bout blue fire with freaky eyes?" asked Goompa.

"No, I don't…" I started, turning to see that we were surrounded by blue flames with evil eyes.

"Don't look them in the eyes, whatever ya do!" George said, getting into battle position.

"But their eyes are awesome!" Goompa said, blinking as he looked one in the eyes. I gasped and watched as… the fire fell unconscious?

"Aw, that's not nice…" said Goompa sadly. The fire creatures backed up in fear, but Goompa suddenly turned his head, his eyes now HUGE.

"Hi!" the two eyes said as the fire monsters fell unconscious.

"…well, alright then," George shrugged. "That works."

"TAKE HIM, HE'LL LAST LONGER!" a voice shouted nearby. "HE'S GOT A CRYSTAL SKULL IN HIS BAG, TOO!"

"Is… is that Admiral Bobbery?" I blinked, turning my head to the voice.

"MUSHROOM PEOPLE ARE INVADING MY BRAIN!" Goompa suddenly jumped on a unicycle, flying through the trunks of trees.

"…isn't he a mushroom-" I started.

"Don't try correcting a mad person," said George, shaking his head. "Trust me, it'll never work out."

We ran forward, past the trees and to the sight of Admiral Bobbery being pushed back further into the other side of the bridge by the fire monsters.

"Oh no…" I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands.

"Looks like our little gun powder filled buddy needs some help!" George said, but he was quickly dragged off by the collar of his shirt by Flavio.

"Forget him, let's get out of here!" he said, nervously looking over his shoulder.

"Aw come on ya coward, he needs our help!" George said.

Before anyone could say anything else, however, Goompa suddenly jumped up in the center.

"I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE!" he cried. We all turned to face him.

"…boop!" he said, pushing a button with his tongue.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

I stretched, looking up at the sky.

"Day six…" I muttered. "Maybe today'll be the day I find my friends."

As if the universe were just waiting for me to say that, George, Iuka, Flurrie, and Flavio all suddenly appeared in the air with a POP, landing in a pile on the sandy beach.

"…okay, no maybe about it then," I blinked, running up to them. "What happened?"

"I don't know…" Iuka said, blushing as she looked up at me. "This Goomba named Goompa-"

"Ah," I said, holding up my hand. "Say no more, I get it."

After I noticed the dreamy expression she was giving my hand-the Nightmare hand-I quickly pulled it away and turned to the others. "What happened to Flurrie?"

"Knocked out by those fire creatures' hypnotic eyes," explained George.

"Yeesh… move her into the shade," I instructed.

"Wait, there's more," said George as Flavio tried to sneak off. "Bobbery's still out there!"

"What? Why didn't he come with you?" I asked.

"He was too far away from the boop thing Goompa did I guess," George shrugged.

"Well he's out there, so come on!" I said, turning and running into the jungle, summoning the Crystal Sword in my hand in a flash of light.

"Mario!" Iuka said, running ahead of me and holding her arms out. "We could have teleported in from anywhere, you can't just run into the forest and find where Admiral Bobbery is!"

"…no, but I think I can…" I muttered, remembering one of the lessons Vivian taught me: How to track down where someone teleported from. "Hold still, please."

I put my Nightmare hand on her shoulder and closed my eyes in focus. Iuka blushed brightly as my hand glowed.

"Right," I said, taking my Nightmare hand off her shoulder and flexing it. "Be right back."

I held out my hand and focused on what I just absorbed from Iuka. Sure enough, a black portal opened up.

"Be back with Bobbery soon!" I saluted, dashing into the portal.

"Mario, wait!" Iuka called after me, her voice echoing in the dark hallway that connected space together. "You can't go alone!"

There wasn't much I could do about it, however, as the portal behind me closed. I continued to run forward, ready to come out where Bobbery was.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

I gasped, looking up.

"What is it?" Koops asked.

"Is it another monster?" asked Leon. "Lemmie at 'im, I can take them down!"

"Oh Stars, not another monster…" muttered Four Eyes.

"No, it's not another monster…" I shook my head, holding out my hands. "Someone just stepped through a dark Portal. Maybe if I focus hard enough…"

I closed my eyes and focused on the single point between the fabric of dreams that the tunnel of darkness had been dug. I managed to find a weak point and tear it open, spawning a portal in front of us. As I panted and stepped back, Mario ran through the Portal.

"What the… hey, I found you guys!" Mario blinked in surprise. "Are you here to save Bobbery, too?"

"Bobbery's here?" asked Leon, looking around. "Where?"

"…but wait," Mario said in thought as the portal behind him closed. "I focused on Iuka, who had just teleported from where Bobbery was, and I made a Portal connecting where that location was…"

"Oh no," I moaned, covering my face with my hands. "Mario, I'm so sorry…"

"What?" asked Mario, looking up at me. "What do you mean?"

"I… I dug into your portal and redirected your exit to here," she said. "I'm sorry, I just… we've been out here for six days and we haven't seen anyone, so I was hoping…"

"Vivian, it's not your fault…" Mario sighed as Koops put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "This does put a damper on things though… Bobbery's in a lot of trouble! He's cornered by Embers!"

"What?" Leon asked in worry. "Oh man…"

"But look… we don't have to worry!" Mario said, turning to face us and putting his hand into the air. "We will find Bobbery! Even if we have to scan every square inch of the island, we'll find him! You know why?"

"Er… Mario?" asked Koops.

"Not now, I'm on a roll," Mario said. "You know why? Because he is our friend! And friends are always there to help each other, no matter what happens!"

"Mario…" Koops repeated.

"It doesn't matter if we have to cross over rivers of lava or swim through lakes of piranhas," Mario said, "because in the end, Bobbery will be waiting for us, and-"

"MARIO!" Koops finally shouted.

"What?" Mario asked in mild irritation. Koops pointed behind him, and Mario turned to see Bobbery wounded under a nearby tree, the Embers surrounding him.

"…oh," Mario blinked. "Well… alright then."

Summoning his sword, Mario jumped forward and slashed through the Embers. Koops and Leon ran to help, but Mario took care of them all before they could reach there.

"Phew… God I love this sword," said Mario as he made the Crystal Sword vanish in a flash of light. He turned to Bobbery, who was laying injured under the tree.

"Oh… are you… all okay?" he managed.

"Yeah," Mario nodded, kneeling down next to him. "But what about you?"

"I'm… okay, I'm not fine at all," coughed Bobbery.

"There's gotta be something we can do!" Leon said.

"Well…" Bobbery looked into the sky. "If… you could just do me one favor before I-"

"What's the favor?" asked Mario, not letting him finish that sentence.

"…bring me a bottle of Chuckola Cola," he said. "I just want to taste that soda one last time…"

"Alright," Mario nodded, standing up. "…wait a minute, why can't we just create a portal and-"

"Don't you remember what I told you about portals?" I finally said, looking down sadly at Bobbery. "He wouldn't make it in his state…"

"Right…" Mario sighed. He turned and opened a dark portal. "Let's hurry back to base. One of us should stay and watch over Bobbery."

"I will!" offered Four-Eyes.

"…leave Bobbery alone with you?" Mario raised an eyebrow. "Right… thanks but no thanks."

"I thought it's been established that you trust me!" Four Eyes said.

"FLAVIO trusts you," Mario corrected.

"I'll stay here with him!" volunteered Leon.

"And I'll stay with Leon," said Koops. I wanted to stay with them too, but that would have just been excessive.

"Right…" Mario nodded, turning around and opening a Portal. "After you, Four Eyes."

Four Eyes grumbled and walked close to the Portal, looking nervously in. "Is it… safe?"

"Sure, if you define 'safe' as 'a horrible soul-wrenching journey through the darkest pits of pure darkness itself,'" Mario said casually.

"Okay… wait, wha-" Four-Eyes started, but he was interrupted as Mario kicked him into the Portal.

"…um, Mario?" I said. "The Portal doesn't really tear apart at your soul if you think about what's closest to your heart…"

"I know," said Mario. "But we all know who Four Eyes is, and I just wanna let him know we know who he is."

With a smirk, Mario ran into the Portal, me following behind. I turned my head to see Koops and Leon watching me as the Portal behind us closed.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

The Portal ahead opened, landing us all back on the beach.

"Oh, good old Four Eyes!" Flavio cried out joyfully. "I was hoping you were safe!"

"IT FEELS LIKE MY VERY SOUL HAS BEEN CLAWED AT BY A THOUSAND ANGRY SPIRITS!" cried out Four Eyes, curling on the ground.

"Oh you'll be fine," I said. "…he'll be fine, right Vivian?"

"As long as he focuses on his heart, then yes," nodded Vivian.

"Alright," I turned back. "Koops and Leon are still with Bobbery, and he…"

Everyone watched me for a moment.

"…oh," sighed George, having been the first one to get it.

"…he wants some Chuckola Cola before he…" I gulped. I could see the looks on everyone's faces as they all got it as well. Well, except for Flavio.

"Do we even HAVE Chuckola Cola?" George asked, looking around.

"I think some crashed onto the island with the supplies…" Iuka said.

As we spoke, I noticed Flavio nervously shuffle away.

"Yo, Flavio!" I called, stopping him in his tracks. I ran in front of him. "…what do you have hidden behind your back?"

"N-nothing!" Flavio said nervously.

"It's a bottle of Chuckola Cola!" shouted George, having seen it.

"Aw… well it's just… I was so thirsty, and…" Flavio said. "Well this is MY private supply, why should I-"

"Listen here you dirty rotten no good two timing {I'm ashamed to say I said a vulgar word here}," I growled, grabbing Flavio by the collar of his shirt. "We have an old, dying Bob-omb out there in the forest-A Bob-omb, might I remind you, that you specifically hired for this mission-who's only last wish is to drink that Chuckola Cola. If you don't give that carbonated beverage up, _**I am going to use my Nightmare Powers to rip open a gate to hell and shove you right in, letting the spirits of the damned claw at your very soul for all of eternity!**_"

I glowed with dark energy as I said this, burning Flavio's shirt.

"Okay, okay!" Flavio winced in deep fear, shoving the bottle in my chest. "Just don't hurt me, I'm too pretty to die!"

"Thank you!" I said cheerfully, taking the bottle. I turned around to see everyone staring at me.

"…what?" I shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"

* * *

The Portal opened, and I ran out to Bobbery. I was alone, clutching the Cola in my non-Nightmare hand.

"He's back," Koops said softly to Bobbery, pointing to me. "See?"

"Oh… good…" sighed Bobbery. "Did you bring…?"

I nodded, kneeling down and helping Bobbery drink the soda.

"Oh… thank you…" Bobbery smiled and closed his eyes, facing the sky. "Scarlette… I'm… coming… home…"

His body went limp. We all watched for a moment, tears welling in our eyes.

"I didn't know him for long," I said, wiping my face with my sleeve, "but… he still managed to grow on me."

"He always did tell the best stories…" Leon's little body was shaking. He was trying so hard to keep himself from crying.

"We should take a moment to remember him…" Koops bowed his head. I took off my hat and did the same.

After a moment, we heard a snore.

"…WHAT." My head snapped up to Bobbery, WHO WAS JUST TAKING A NAP.

"FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!" I flung my arms up in the air, then summoned my sword, hitting Bobbery upside the head with the hilt. "HEY, WAKE UP YOU OLD FART!"

"AUGH!" Bobbery jumped awake. "What happened?"

"YOU HAD US WORRIED OVER YOU!" I shouted. "DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!"

"…well in my defense," blinked Bobbery, "I honestly did think I would die."

Leon didn't mind; He hugged Bobbery tightly. Koops just looked relieved.

"…let's go," I said, turning around and opening a Portal. "Remember something closest to your heart, guys."

We all ran through the Portal, back to camp to rest.

* * *

**Author's Note: Internet's back, guys! Yeah, now I can waste my time playing Mabinogi instead of writi-err… I mean, writing chapters for you guys! Yeah, that's what I meant… heheh… uh… well, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	43. Chapter 43: The Fourth Movie is the Key

**Author's Note: Last minute writing FTW! Sorry, I'm just getting married soon in Mabinogi, so I've been spending most of my spare time collecting GP. I have to have 25,000 in a week, and so far I have… 6,000. If anyone would like to make a donation, my username is Pax1! Kidding though, seriously… what are the odds you guys really have Mabinogi accounts? Aaaaaanyway… we're back to the fanfic about dreams! Not my Bittersweet Candy Bowl dream, but that IS something I should work on… so, we're about to enter the cave! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 43: The Fourth Movie is the Key**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…so that's it?" asked Flurrie, who was now awake. "That's all that happened the past week?"

"Yup," I nodded, biting into my cooked fish.

It was sunset by now, and we were all gathered around the fire. Goombella was even there, though I advised against it. Let me tell you, though, everyone was freaked out when they saw the part-Nightmare Goomba sitting in front of them.

"So Vivian," I said, turning to her. "How is that possible? Her infection going so slow? I mean… I thought that infection thing happens almost instantly."

"Most of the time, yes," nodded Vivian. "But… well, you infected her by accident, right?"

"Of course!" I said. "I would NEVER do this to her purposely!"

"That's why," Vivian said. "A Nightmare's powers are based not only on their innate physical abilities, but also their mental state. Because you weren't focusing on turning Goombella into a Nightmare, only a little bit of the infection got in, resulting in the slow infection right now."

"Well that's lucky then," Goombella laughed lightly.

"No, what would have been lucky is if I hadn't infected you at all," I protested.

"Mario, how many times do I have to tell you it wasn't your fault?"

"If I had just grabbed you with my other arm…"

"You didn't have the time to think which arm to grab me."

"But if I-"

"You sound like a married couple," George said passively, peeling apart the flesh of the fish and eating it a piece at a time. Both Goombella and I blushed as we turned away from each other.

"…huh, you were right," Koops blinked.

"What'd I tell you?" smirked George, turning down and continuing to eat.

"So… what now?" asked Leon. "If we don't do something, Goombella will turn into a Nightmare soon, and we can't just spend the rest of our lives on an island full of monsters!"

"Actually it's not all that difficult," interjected Iuka. "Learn the natural rhythm of nature, and you can live for years off the fruits and fish of the island. Make houses, a small village…"

"But we have a world to save!" Flurrie said. "We have Crystal Stars to collect!"

This gave me an idea. "Wait… the Crystal Stars!"

I held out my hand, and in a flash of light, the Crystal Sword appeared.

"This repels Nightmares, right?" I asked. "So… why can't we use it to purge the infection from Goombella?"

"The shock would kill her," Vivian shook her head as Goombella's Nightmare half scooted away from the sword.

"Excuse me, but…" Bobbery's eyes widened as he stood up, walking toward me. "Is that… THE Crystal Sword?"

"You know about it?" I asked, holding out the sword for him to examine.

"Aye," nodded Bobbery, looking at it from hilt to tip. "I've heard many a tale about this weapon during my travels."

"Any stories about purifying infected people?" asked Goombella.

"…yes, actually," said Bobbery.

"Wait, seriously?" I jumped to my feet. "Tell me so we can do it!"

"It's not that simple…" Bobbery said. "You see… the story goes like… ah, let me sit down. I always tell stories best when I sit."

Bobbery walked back over to his spot and sat down. Leon sat straight up in attention, and I sat back down, making my sword disappear again.

"It was… thirty years ago, I'd say," said Bobbery, watching the fire as he spun his tale. "My crew and I had landed on an island with a small village. This Village had a statue of a young man holding the Crystal Sword. We asked the chief, who told us that young man was a Dream Keeper."

"…Dream Keeper?" I asked, the name ringing a bell. "What's that?"

I remember I've asked that a few times before, but I was hoping I'd get an answer this time.

"Now that is exactly what we asked the chief," Bobbery continued. "He continued to tell us that a Dream Keeper was… well, a Keeper of Dreams."

"Well DUH," Goombella rolled her eyes.

"Let me finish," said Bobbery. "The Dream Keeper is apparently a chosen hero that travels between Dreams and protects them from Nightmares."

"So… we're all just part of a Dream?" asked Koops. I shuffled uncomfortably.

"That's what these people believed, anyway," nodded Bobbery. "But it's worthy to note that a dream isn't necessarily something that happens while you're asleep. Every idea, books, movies, cartoons, they all have Dreams connected to them. That's what they told me."

"This explains so much…" I muttered.

"Did you say something?" asked Iuka.

"Hm?" I looked up. "Oh… nothing, continue."

"Well," continued Bobbery, "they said they learned about it when the Dream Keeper crashed onto their island, chasing after a rouge Nightmare. In the hunt, the Nightmare accidentally infected a young girl in the village. After slaying the Nightmare, the Dream Keeper turned to the girl and propped her on the side of a building. Using his magic powers, he drained a fragment of power from the sword into the form of a Crystal Star. He placed this star on the girl, who's Nightmare flesh burned when she touched it. The Dream Keeper slammed the sword into the star, which exploded into light and was re-absorbed into it. The flash of light and pure positive energy sent a shockwave through the girl, purging the Infection from within her."

"Alright!" I clapped my hands. "C'mon, we gotta find that Crystal Star!"

"Aren't you forgetting one little thing?" asked George. "We don't KNOW where it is."

"…well we can find it!" I said. "Maybe it's… with the treasure!"

"Yes!" Flavio jumped up, clapping. "I'm behind you 100%!"

"Mention treasure and he'll get on his knees and beg like a dog…" muttered Bobbery.

"But wait… we still don't know…" started Iuka.

"Yes we do!" Flavio said. "Well… I understand if you small-minded knaves forgot, but I remember full well!"

"…can I PLEASE hurt him?" Bobbery asked.

"Later man," I promised him.

"…wait, wha-" started Flavio.

"Where is the treasure, Flavio?" Koops asked, trying to keep us from arguing.

"Oh, it's easy," shrugged Flavio. "That Cliffside! Ya know, the one Bobbery took a nap next to!"

"Don't remind us…" I muttered, holding out my hand and opening a Portal. "Flavio, you, Bobbery, Leon, and George come with me. Iuka, Flurrie, Koops and Vivian, you guys stay with Goombella and make sure she's okay."

"Wait a minute, I'm not going through that Portal again!" Flavio shook his head, stepping back. "That thing nearly ripped my soul in half last time!"

"Maybe it'll go all the way this time," I replied, picking him up by his shirt and running through the Portal. My friends followed close behind.

"Good Luck!" I heard Iuka call after me as the Portal closed. A short run later, we arrived at the Cliffside again. Flavio was curled up, shaking in pain/fear.

"Alright… so how do we open this up?" I asked, looking over the cliff.

"W-well…" Flavio calmed down. "There's this song that's been passed down for ages… _Under the Skull captain-_"

CRASH! I interrupted him by punching down the cliff with my Nightmare hand, opening a hole to a corridor.

"You were saying?" I asked, flexing my Nightmare fingers as I walked in.

"…we didn't even get to use the Crystal Skull!" said Leon. "This chapter's completely against what it really is about!"

"Shh!" Bobbery said. "No breaking the Fourth Wall yet…"

My friends followed me behind.

* * *

**Author's Note: Mabinogi and Penny Arcade have kept me procrastinating, I'm sorry! Tomorrow will be a longer chapter (maybe) and Friday will be the epic battle, so until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	44. Chapter 44: Caves and Exploration

**Author's Note: Hey, did you know that I have a webcomic called Steven's Quest? It's on DeviantArt, there's a link to it in my profile… no? Okay, how about my online blog? It's linked on my home… page. You don't care about that, either? You just want me to get on with the chapter? Well… fine then. Have it your way. I don't mind if-I'M SO LONELY PLEASE JUST LOVE ME! *Ahem* Sorry, don't know what came over me there. Here's yo chapter.**

* * *

_**Chapter 44: Caves, and explorations within**_

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"…alright," I sighed, rubbing my temples. "I could understand the flashbacks of all the armies I led to their deaths… I could understand watching me burn down a town from a different perspective… but a CAVE? What the hell does THAT have to do with anything?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the other me rolled his eyes. "This cave represents the dark hallway of… uh, the twisted… darkness within your heart, and…"

"You're running out of ideas, aren't you?" I smirked.

"Shut up!" the other me retorted.

As you could have guessed by now, we were in a dank hallway located inside a deep cave. It twisted and turned deep inside, but it really wasn't going anywhere. Not that the other me would admit it, of course.

"Okay, so… right, I figured out your evil plan," I said. "You're going to leave me here in this cave, and I'm going to bore myself to death. Is that right?"

"You're an asshole," glared the other me.

"Said the pot," I retorted.

"Oh yeah? Well YOU…" started the other me. I waited a moment.

"…right, as soon as you find a proper way to end that sentence, you just tell me, alright?" I asked, walking off.

"I hate you SO much…" growled the other me.

"Yeah, I think we already covered that," I replied, turning forward to face a tiny wasp stinging my forehead.

"Gah, that stings…" I said, rubbing my head. "What, now you're sending WASPS at me? I'm a NIGHTMARE you know. Wasps aren't really that effective against me."

"Not even a hundred?" asked the other me, pointing to a thick cloud of wasps heading toward me.

"…you're not even trying anymore," I sighed, holding out my hand and conjuring a shield, which all the wasps just bounced off of. "Can you just take me back to the Dive and call me when you can actually think of good material and stop pulling crap out of your ass?"

"Alright, that is IT!" the other me said, snapping his fingers. The floor under me opened up, and I fell down a pit and into a large arena, completely underground. There was a pillar of darkness, and suddenly, I was surrounded by every single person I had ever infected.

"How do you like THAT?" shouted the other me.

"…you know," I said, "this really doesn't carry anything. There's no back story, no setup, just boom, they're here, you fight them. You don't even make me re-live the memories of infecting them all? Honestly, you're PATHETIC."

"I'LL SHOW YOU PATHETIC!" shouted the other me. "ATTACK!"

I sighed as I transformed my arms into swords, leaping into the air… then going further up and up and up.

* * *

_**Enter the Author:**_

* * *

"…wait, what?" I asked, blinking at what I just wrote. Suddenly, a dark portal opened up in the middle of my room, and Coron jumped out, glaring at me.

"Stop reading Penny Arcade and actually WRITE," he growled. "This is just SAD."

"But… but I'm already at 2008, see?" I pointed. "Can't I just catch up to the most recent-"

"NO," Coron interrupted, reaching over and closing out of Internet Explorer entirely. "Now WRITE. And if you even THINK of going off to play Mabinogi or Minecraft, I'll come back."

With that, he jumped back through the portal in the floor, closing it behind him.

"…okay, maybe I better get back with Pax's story," I said, turning back to Microsoft Office Word and typing.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Dear GOD, how deep is this cave?" I asked, diving under an Ember and slashing it with my sword. We had been exploring the cave for quite some time now, and so far we've only come across water and Embers, which honestly doesn't make much sense to me. Why would monsters made entirely of FLAMES live in a cave that's half flooded? But, I digress…

"I don't… hey, where's Flavio?" asked Leon, looking around.

"That coward went to hide in that boat over there!" said Bobbery, looking to an old, shipwrecked boat at the side. I sighed.

"C'mon, let's go get him," I said, slaying the last of the Embers with a sword swipe.

"Better idea: Let's leave him here," suggested Bobbery. "Maybe if we're lucky the spirits will take him instead and leave us alone."

"Tempting… but I think that's illegal," I replied. "Abandoning the captain, that is."

"And since WHEN are laws enforced at Rougeport?" asked Bobbery.

"…again, you make an excellent and tempting offer," I rubbed my chin in thought. "But… still, we really should save him."

"Oh… fine," grumbled Bobbery. We all entered the boat after Flavio to see him trying to pry open a black chest.

"C'mon… open…" he groaned. "I want your treasure!"

"…part of me wants to stop him, part of me wants to laugh," I said, blinking.

"I got this," George said, walking up to him and silently whispering: "She'd still be alive if it weren't for you."

"AUGH!" Flavio jumped into the air. "I'M SORRY, I DIDN'T MEAN… to…"

He turned to see us laughing.

"Oh, REAL funny!" Flavio huffed.

"Right… so anyway," I said, turning to the chest, "that looks a bit ominous, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Leon.

"I just mean… it looks like something that'll just out of nowhere start talking to us in a dark voice from Hell," I replied.

"Oh please, that NEVER-" Flavio started as George counted down. As soon as he hit one, he pointed at the black chest.

"_**YOUR MOTHER SUCKS ROCKS IN THE UNDERWHERE,**_" a dark voice that sounded like a thousand damned souls strung together into one being speaking at the same time said from inside the chest. Flavio shrieked and hid behind George in fear.

"…how do you ALWAYS call these things?" I asked, turning to George.

"You live long enough, you see enough things, you start…" began George.

"…to pick up patterns in how things work?" finished Bobbery.

"You know it," smirked George.

"Uh… hey!" the chest said. "Didn't I… ya know… scare you or anything?"

"You scared at least one of us," Bobbery replied.

"Hey Leon," I asked, turning to the little Yoshi, "you scared?"

"Not really," Leon shook his head. "More like startled."

"Well… hey, one out of five isn't bad, right?" I told the chest.

"Yeah, I guess…" the chest said. "Oh, by the way, can you free me?"

We all stared at it for a moment.

"…you just said a dark, ominous phrase that sounded like it came directly from the Underwhere," said Bobbery. "And you want us to free you?"

"Well… yeah!" the chest said. We all turned to leave.

"No, wait! Come back!" begged the chest. "I'm not really evil! I just… wanted to get your attention!"

"…and the best way to do that was to scare one of us out of our pants?" I asked.

"Seriously, put them back on!" Bobbery said, disgusted.

"Hey, it's not MY fault that chest was so scary!" Flavio stuck his tongue out as he pulled his pants back on.

"You were the one who came into this boat in the first place, though," pointed out Bobbery.

"…oh shut up," muttered Flavio.

"Nono, I didn't mean to SCARE you, just…" the chest said sheepishly. "Well, I've been so lonely, and I forgot how to properly greet people."

"…really?" I asked. "What kind of idiot do you expect to believe-"

"I completely believe that!" Flavio said.

"Oh of course…" Bobbery muttered.

"But wait… you're locked," Leon said. "Flavio tried to open you already."

"Oh yeah, you'll need a special key to do that," the chest said.

"Okay," I nodded. "Where's the key?" I figured we already hit a dead end, so why not? This could be our only lead.

"You'll have to find it yourselves!" the chest said. "…no, wait! Come back! Okay, I'll tell you where the key is. It's hidden in the room with a bunch of Embers. You'll have to solve a puzzle to… no, wait! Come back! Okay, okay, no puzzles! There's just a tiny group of Embers who are guarding the key. You'll have to fight them all to… no, wait! Come back! Okay, okay! The key is in that pot on that shelf behind me!"

"Thank you," I replied, pulling the key out of said pot. Using it, I unlocked and opened the chest, revealing a thick cloak of darkness with a face.

"Mwa ha ha!" it laughed. "You FOOLS! You freed me from my eternal prison! Now I am going to curse you!"

"You fiend!" Flavio said, hiding behind a barrel. "What are you going to do to them?"

"Yeah what… wait a minute, waddaya mean 'them'?" asked Leon.

"Well, I'm out of cursing range, you see," reasoned Flavio. "So I'm the only one who gets out without a curse. So sorry."

"What cursing range?" I shouted.

"Actually, he's totally right," noted the darkness with a face.

"Just tell us what the curse is," George said calmly, putting a hand over my mouth to prevent me from blurting out.

"Alright…" it laughed. "This is just SO evil! A horrible, HORRIBLE curse! The cursyest curse of all curses! Your curse is… a brand new boat!"

"…what." This was simultaneously spoken by all five of us.

"That's right!" it continued, summoning a fancy looking little rowboat for us outside. "This boat comfortably and safely fits five, and it allows you to row down the flowing river up ahead to safely reach your destination!"

"…oh no, anything but that," I said. "It's such a terrible curse. Please have mercy on us."

"I know it's terrible!" it giggled. "Well, I'm off to curse others! Farewell!"

With that, it flew out of the cave and into the night.

"Gentlemen, I think we have just released Santa onto the world," I said, stepping into our rowboat. "All aboard!"

As we climbed in, Bobbery stopped Flavio. "Whoa, what do you think you're doing?"

"Getting on the boat!" Flavio replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Bobbery said in mock apology. "But you were standing outside the cursing range, you see. We just can't let you into our curse."

With that, we rowed off, leaving Flavio shouting after us, alone in the cave.

"…wait, Mario," said Leon, turning to look at me. "Didn't you say this was illegal?"

"Technically, we're captains of THIS boat," I reasoned. "So we don't HAVE to follow his rules."

"…really?" asked Leon.

"Kid, let me teach you about a little something we call 'loopholes'," George said. "See, in every contract, there's…"

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

I was watching the stars in the sky, waiting for the group to come back. Vivian walked by, looking nervous.

"Something the matter?" I asked, sitting up and turning to her. Vivian turned to look at me.

"It's just… I really don't think I should be this close to Goombella," she said. "I'm afraid being in the same proximity as her would cause her infection to pick up speed…"

"Don't be so hard on yourself," I smiled at her, patting her hand. "It's going to be fine."

Vivian smiled at me in return. "Thanks, Koops."

Five seconds later, that smile faded when Iuka came to tell us that Goombella's infection was picking up speed.

"What?" I jumped up. "How?"

"I don't know," Iuka shook her head. "Just all of a sudden, the infection made a leap!"

"Is she still okay?" asked Vivian, covering her mouth in worry.

"She still has a bit of her torso and half of her head head not infected," nodded Iuka. Vivian moved around her and went into Goombella's tent. I followed behind, and gasped at her.

The left side of her head was alright, and a bit of her torso, just like Iuka said. The entire left side, however, was pitch black and her eye was replaced with a white hole. Both of her feet were clawed, as well.

"Oh… hey guys…" Goombella said weakly. "Is… is Mario back yet?"

"…he'll be back soon," Vivian promised. Goombella smiled, despite the situation.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's within the hour…" she sighed, closing her eyes. "He's too stubborn to let me go just yet. And I gotta say… I feel the same way…"

The way she said it, it sounded like there was a deeper meaning to it. I gulped, then stuck my head out the tent.

"Where are you, Mario?" I muttered under my breath.

* * *

_**Enter the Darkness with a Face:**_

* * *

Hey, I actually get to write in this thing! Hi, everybody! Yeah, in case you didn't know, I'm the one who made that Goomba girl's infection pick up. I didn't mean to, of course! Maybe it's just all my curse-y energy. Did I mention I'm an awesome curser? I curse a lot of things! Even YOU! Yes, by reading this very passage, you have been cursed to a new chapter this Friday! Oooh, I am SO curse-y! Oh, I almost forgot, HI MOM! I'm in a book, see? Can you tell Dad, too? He'll be so proud! This passage was AWESOME! I bet they'll call me back to do another one!

* * *

_**The Darkness with a Face will never write an entry for this story again. Ever.**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Row _row row your boat, gently down the stream…_" I sung.

"STOP SINGING," everyone said at once.

"…well fine!" I huffed.

"Hey… does anyone else hear that?" asked Leon, trying to peer around the corner.

"Hear what?" I asked. "The sound of KILLJOYS?"

"It's not even a good song, Mario," replied Bobbery.

"Untrue!" I said. "I like it!"

"And who else?"

"Well there's… um… okay, I see your point."

"Alright now I hear it too," George finally said, getting us back on track. "C'mon, let's row."

We rowed and turned the corner to see a fragment of land that was full of our shipmates, toads, and two Pintas. I recognized these two almost instantly.

"Frankie?" I asked as we reached the land. "Francisca? What are you two doing here?"

"Oh it was terrible!" said Francisca as we reached land and stepped out of our boat. "One minute we were sailing along on our boat, then we saw these pair of yellow eyes, and the next thing we know, we're in this horrible cave!"

"I'd give that no good pirate scum that did this to us a one-two if it weren't for the fact that he's a ghost…" muttered Frankie, looking at his cut arms.

"Oh Frankie, you did your best," said Francisca, hugging her fiancé.

"Forget that, look!" a toad said, pointing. "A BOAT! We're saved!"

"Okay…" I said. "The boat fits five, so… if one of us rows, that leaves four, which means each trip we'll-"

"EXTREME BOAT RACING!" an echoing voice said. Suddenly, Goompa jumped down and stuck a motor on the back of the boat, driving away quickly.

"…okay then," I blinked. "No boat. Okay. Look, I'll help ALL of you get out, I just need to know where the Crystal Star is!"

"The what?" asked Frankie.

"…the pirate ghost, then!" I said.

"Oh, in the boat in that chamber," Frankie pointed. Spinning around, I dashed in, ready to defeat the ghost and snag that star.

"Wait up!" Leon ran after me.

"Just hold on a little bit longer, we'll be back!" Bobbery promised, running after us.

"…congratulations, by the way," George said, being the only one who noticed the Pintas wearing wedding rings as he walked calmly after us.

"Thanks!" Francisca giggled as Frankie blushed.

With that, George followed us into the next chamber.

* * *

**Author's Note: Late update, I know. Coron had to come back a few times to keep me from procrastinating. Well, Friday we have a BOSS BATTLE! But will they get it in time to save Goombella? Until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	45. Chapter 45: Cortez

**Author's Note: Derp. You're welcome, Fanny.**

* * *

_**Chapter 45: Cortez**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

We were standing on the deck of the ship, hiding behind a pile of barrels and glaring at the door that led into the Captain's Cabin.

"The Crystal Star's in there," said Leon. "Now… how're we gonna get it? Burst in and kick some butt?"

"I think we should have a plan, actually," replied Bobbery.

"Oh, I got it!" I snapped my fingers. "It's an awesome plan!"

"No, we don't have access to any Ninjas," George said, as if he read my mind.

"…well darnit," I sighed. "Okay, we'll go with Leon's plan."

"…wait, what?" Bobbery asked, looking up in time to see me barging into the cabin, kicking the door down. With a sigh, Bobbery followed along with Leon and George.

The next chamber was fairly large, but not too terribly large, if that makes sense. It had a captain's chair and table, it was FULL to the brim of gold and jewels and such, and a giant floating ghost skull was floating in the middle of the room, glaring at us. Behind was the Crystal Star, laying on top of the pile of gold and-

Wait a second… Giant. Ghost. Skull.

Crap.

"How DARE you not heed my-" began the skull, his eyes glowing evilly.

"Stop. Right. There." I glared at him, holding up my hand. "Listen. I've already been through something like this before. There should be a law against ghosts saying that cliché. Now listen, my best friend is in horrible trouble, and we need your treasure to save her, so we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. Got it?"

"…what's the hard way?" asked the Skull. I clenched my fist, summoning the sword in a flash of light.

"You asked for it, dead dude," I glared.

"Now wait a minute, I never asked to do the hard…" began the skull, but I didn't give him a chance before jumping into the air and slicing down at him. The Sword left a visible line through him and he screamed, staggering back. He glared, the room shaking. Suddenly, a whole skeleton grew from the base of the skull, wielding pirate swords to boot.

"This is gonna be fun," George said, cracking his knuckles as Bobbery and Leon got into battle positions.

"Prepare to get locked in Davy Jones' locker!" laughed the Skeletal Pirate. I dashed forward again and sliced upwards, but he held out his blades in an X and blocked my attack. He swung both at me, but I blocked one and ducked under the second. I spun and sliced his ribcage, slicing a rip clean off. One down, twenty three to go. He cried out in pain-

Okay, I have to pause and wonder here… he's just a SKELETON. He has no nerves or anything. How does he feel pain? But… yeah, I guess that's not important.

What was important was that after the slice, Bobbery jumped up and climbed right into the Skeleton's ribcage. He screamed and dropped his swords, trying to claw him out, but Leon used his tongue to restrain one arm and George jumped up and pinned down his other.

"Little help here?" George grunted, being jostled by the arm under him. I ran forward and stabbed my sword in the skeleton's boney wrist, keeping it restrained.

"Thanks," George said, stepping back. "Now, I would strongly suggest you duck."

I turned to see Bobbery flashing, and I took George's advice. One boom later, his bones were scattered all over the place. The only thing left standing was his spinal cord and skull.

"Nice job, Bobbery!" I gave a thumbs up. "…Bobbery?"

Said old Bob-omb fell right next to me with a thump.

"Oi… I'm too old for this…" groaned Bobbery, standing shakily to his feet.

"Uh… wait, is Leon okay?" I asked, turning my head to look at the young Yoshi. He was sitting down, holding out his tongue in pain.

"Bap… hurp…" he said, fanning said tongue.

"Sorry…" Bobbery said. "I didn't mean to hurt you like that."

"Ih ohay," Leon replied, standing up again and forcing his tongue back in. "We beat him at least, right?"

"THINK AGAIN!"

We all spun around to see the spinal cord and skull slither back and stand up like a snake.

"Oh of course," I sighed, re-summoning the sword in my hand. "It couldn't be easy now, could it?"

"Of course not, that just wouldn't be any fun," replied George, getting back into battle position.

"Alright _Amigos,_ let's see you try that again!" shouted the Skeleton/Snake, lunging forward and chattering his boney teeth. Bobbery, Leon and I dove out of the way, but George jumped up, grabbed the skull, and flipped onto the top of his head, sliding down and riding the spine like a cowboy in a rodeo.

"GET OFF ME!" the Skeleton/Snake writhed around, trying to fling George off.

"Mmmm… nah, this is too fun," replied George, kicking the sides. "Giddy up!"

"…shouldn't we be doing something?" Bobbery asked, watching George ride him all around the room.

"As much fun as this is to watch," I said, taking a moment to stretch, "We're kind of running on a time limit. George, get down!"

George back flipped off the Skeleton/Snake, and he in turn turned to face me. "What-"

"_**Attigas!**_" I shouted, pointing my Nightmare hand at him. Black arrows shot out and imbedded themselves into him.

"_**Singi!**_" I followed up, waving my hand. The arrows burst into black flames, burning his bones from the inside. He screamed and writhed in agony, slamming against the walls.

"Bobbery?" I asked, stifling a quiet cough. With a sigh, Bobbery marched forward and exploded again, breaking apart the skeleton's spinal cord into tiny pieces and blowing his skull back behind the desk.

"Alright…" I panted. "Let's…"

I made my sword disappear and moved to catch Bobbery in my arms.

"Thanks…" Bobbery panted as I placed him down.

"No prob," I replied. "Everyone else okay?"

"I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to help out in that second part," sighed Leon.

"I had a blast," shrugged George. "So… Crystal Star?"

"Right," I nodded, turning to face…

…the floating Skull, using his ghostly/psychic powers to make five different swords float by him.

"…oh of course, it had to be THREE stages," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose and shaking my head. "Look, this is starting to become tedious. Why can't you just stay down?"

"This treasure is MINE!" cried out the Skull. "I, the Pirate King Cortez, will strike you down and-"

"Cortez?" I asked. "Like, the Spanish Explorer Cortez?"

"Uh… _si?_" replied Cortez.

"Huh… well, cool name," I said.

"Thanks!" Cortez said. "It earned me much respect on the seas!"

"I can imagine," I nodded.

"Er… not that this is a bad conversation or anything, but…" Cortez said. "You want my treasure, I want to defend it… I have to kill you, no offence."

"Oh none taken," I shrugged. "Happens all the time, believe it or not."

"I second that," George added.

"Right… where was I?" Cortez asked.

"You were talking about how you would strike us down," Leon said helpfully.

"Oh yeah, thanks," nodded Cortez.

"…are you ALWAYS this helpful to the bad guys?" asked Bobbery, appalled.

"…only to the polite ones," I said, kicking a rock.

"Right. Well then…" Cortez cleared his throat (or lack of). "And this time, I'll take out your weapon!"

"You can't get rid of the Sword!" I said, getting into battle position and re-summoning the sword. "It's tied to me, like destiny ties two bonds in-"

"I was talking about the bomb," Cortez interrupted.

"…oh," I said.

"WEAPON?" Bobbery was downright insulted. "I am much MORE than a weapon!"

It was then Cortez swung his blade at him, knocking him back and leaving a nasty cut down his side, knocking him unconscious.

"BOBBERY!" we turned to face him.

"Don't you know you never turn your back to the enemy?" Cortez taunted as he swung down another three swords at us. I acted on instinct and dove the other way to knock Leon out of harm's way. George had the common sense to dodge as well, so we all made it out unharmed.

"George, take Bobbery and get him to safety!" I shouted. George nodded, running to Bobbery and picking him up before diving out of the cabin.

"Looks like it's just you two against me…" Cortez glared, and we glared right back.

"Let's do this!" Leon dashed forward, followed almost immediately by me. The air was a storm of metal as the swords were slashed at us. We both dodged, I blocked a few. Leon used his tongue to latch onto Cortez himself and grapple to him, climbing on his skull.

"Hey stupid, betcha can't get me here!" He said.

"…oh PLEASE," Cortez said. "That is the oldest trick in the book. Do you HONESTLY think I'd be stupid enough to fall for that."

"Nah," replied Leon. "But it does make for a good distraction, don't it?"

"What are you talking…" Cortez looked up in time to see me running forward. He screamed and shot out swords at me.

"_**Otcelfed!**_" I held out my Nightmare hand and the swords were deflected away from me. That kind of surprised me there. I mean, I was just making something up there, I had no idea the Latin word for deflect was really Deflecto. Seriously, don't believe me? Look it up.

"MOVE LEON! _**OICAFEPUTS!**_" This I shouted as I pointed at the Skull. As Leon jumped off, Cortez shook, now stunned. I jumped into the air and slammed my sword down into his forehead. He screamed as he shook, landing with a thump on the ground and shrinking down to the size of an average skull. I flexed my hand and made the sword disappear. I glared down at the skull now broken in half.

"Is he… dead?" asked Leon, looking at the broken skull.

"He was already dead to begin with," I replied. "I think we just put his soul to rest."

"THINK AGAIN!" the skull pieced itself back together and grew back to Cortez's usual size.

"Oh COME ON!" I stomped my foot in frustration.

"Face it, grave robber!" Cortez said. "I'm already DEAD! You can't beat me!"

"I don't care HOW many times I have to beat you down!" I glared, getting into battle position yet again and summoning my sword. "My friend needs the Crystal Star! And I'm going to get it even if I have to grab you and drag you down into the underworld myself!"

"…wait, back up," Cortez said. "Crystal Star? You mean this thing?"

He reached behind and tossed me the Crystal Star. "Keep it! I hate it anyway, it does nothing but waste space."

I grabbed the Crystal Star and stared. I was quiet. My eye gave an involuntary twitch.

"So… yeah, sorry about all that fighting," Cortez said awkwardly. "Heheh…"

"…" I remained silent.

"…are you okay?" asked Cortez.

"If you had a neck I would strangle it," I replied with a growl.

"Uh… let's go, okay?" suggested Leon, pushing me along out of the cabin with the Crystal Star. I glared at Cortez, giving him the evil eye as I was pushed out.

"…okay then, bye," Cortez said, settling back into his chair.

* * *

**Author's Note: It's late, I'm sorry, procrastination, see ya next time**


	46. Chapter 46: Infection Beam

**Author's Note: Time to wrap up this ark on an EPIC note! Enjoy, everyone!**

* * *

_**Chapter 46: Infection Beam**_

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

"C'mon Goombella, don't give up!" I said in concern. Goombella was almost completely a Nightmare now, the only thing left was her left eye, and even that was slowly turning into a Nightmare Eye. "Just hang in there a little while longer!"

"Mario will be here any minute…" Vivian said, glancing outside the tent. "I know it…"

"No… it's… it's alright…" Goombella wheezed, her eye slowly closing. "I'll fight for… as long as I can… but… if I… if I don't make it… tell Mario… I… I…"

"Tell me what?"

We all turned to see Mario running in, gripping the Crystal Star under his arm.

"Mario!" Vivian and I said at the same time.

"Stand back!" Mario pulled the Crystal Star out and placed it on Goombella. Her Nightmare flesh burned and she screamed in pain. Mario held out his hand and summoned the Crystal Sword in a flash of light. He spun it around and stabbed down into the Crystal Star. There was a buildup of light, and Goombella's screams became louder. The light was bright, but it only seemed to really hurt Vivian; Her flesh was turning grey and smoking.

"I'm sorry, I…" she started.

"Go!" I held my arm over her and helped her limp out of the tent and away from the light. When I turned back around, I saw something that shocked me:

It was like Mario was still there, but… not. Like, I was seeing through him into what he really was, and what I saw was… a kid. About my age, actually. He was a human, with brown hair and blue eyes. His shirt was blue, and so were his pants. After a brief, quiet moment of this, there was a shattering sound, and the Crystal Star blasted apart into pure light. It was absorbed into the sword, the blade transforming into light as well and slicing right through Goombella. She gasped, her eyes going wide. With a grunt, Mario/the boy sliced the sword diagonally out of her, and with a final shattering sound, the Infection was sapped right out of Goombella, turning into an orb of darkness. Mario-he was Mario again, as the light faded, so did the boy-held out his Nightmare hand and allowed the darkness to absorb into it.

"WOO!" he shook his head as if he just had a sugar high. "Well… glad that's all over! Right Goombella? …Goombella?"

He turned to Goombella, who was limp on the bed, her eyes closed.

"…no," Mario whispered, dropping to his knees. "Please… NO! NOT AGAIN!"

He buried his head in the bed and sobbed. I stared back, tears running down my face too. Goombella… I couldn't believe it…

Mario was too late. She was… she was gone.

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

"…gotcha," I said, opening an eye and smirking.

What? You didn't HONESTLY believe I was going to die, did you? The book's more than halfway over already, I couldn't just die yet! What's that? You're wondering about why I didn't speak up until just now? Why I've only been using my journal? There's a simple answer to that, actually. I did it to trick you into thinking I'd die at some point. And it worked, didn't it? Oh stop glaring, it was funny!

"THAT WASN'T FUNNY," Mario snapped, glaring at me with his red, teary eyes.

…okay, maybe not.

"…sorry, Mario," I said, sitting up again and looking down at my now purified body. "Just thought… well, after all we went through there, we needed a few laughs to-"

He interrupted me by wrapping me in a big hug.

"Please…" he said, his voice shaky. "Don't… don't do that to me again…"

I nuzzled against him, giving him the Goomba's equivalent of a hug. We were like this for a long time, perfectly content in each other's arms, when Koops cleared his throat.

"Er…" he said. "Not to interrupt, but… uh, we have a bunch of people on the beach."

"Right!" Mario pulled away and blushed, having totally forgotten Koops was there to begin with. "Of course, people! We'll get right on it, right Goombella?"

"Right… right," I said, also blushing. The three of us walked outside the tent and back to the beach.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

Koops wasn't kidding when he said the beach was full of people. It was PACKED with all the guys we saved from the cave. They were all mingling in confusion, some glad they were out of the cave, others disappointed they were stranded, still others wishing there were a few more tents.

"…um, has anyone seen Four Eyes?" asked Iuka. This immediately caught my attention.

"You can't find him?" I ran up and asked. Goombella and Koops followed close behind me.

"No, he just… vanished…" Iuka seemed taken aback by my serious look.

"Okay, look," I said, holding my hands out. "We have GOT to find him before-"

"ATTENTION FOOLS!"

"Of course…" I sighed, turning around to see a battle ship with the X-Naut X printed on the side. Standing at the helm of the ship was none other than Four Eyes.

"Oh, hey Crump," Goombella said calmly.

"WHAT?" shouted "Four Eyes"

"I SAID HEY CRUMP!"

"OH! WELL HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS ME?"

"IT WAS KINDA OBVIOUS, REALLY!"

"REALLY?"

"THAT'S WHAT I SAID!"

"NO, I MEAN… DEAR STARS, THIS IS HURTING MY THROAT!"

"MINE, TOO! SO HOW ABOUT WE STOP?"

"AGREED!"

"Alright…" coughed Goombella, her voice a bit horse now. "So Crump's on the big battle ship and he probably wants the Crystal Star. Which is now in the Crystal Sword."

"Tough luck for him then," I said. "Besides, why in the world does he think that ship will help him? One well-placed Nightmare Spell and he's a goner."

"Oh, and one more thing!" Crump said in a megaphone. "Don't even THINK about using your Nightmare Powers! Because… well, they won't work!"

"Say what?" I asked, blinking.

"This ship is completely made of Dream Crystal!" Crump said. "Ask me how hard it was to find enough to make an entire battleship out of it."

"How-"

"VERY HARD."

"…right." I said. "Well. This seems like the opportune moment to… TAKE COVER!"

I grabbed Goombella and dived out of the way, Koops doing similar, as a cannon launched out toward us and landed on the beach. Everyone was screaming and running this way and that.

"Okay…" I said, thinking hard. "What to do… what to… I GOT IT! Koops, stay here and make sure Bobbery's alright. He's too hurt as it is to be in the middle of this fight."

"Got it," nodded Koops, dashing off as the cannons blasted this way and that.

"Goombella, you stay and-" I started.

"No," Goombella shook her head stubbornly. "I'm sticking with you."

"Goombella…"

"After all that time cooped up, I NEED some action. I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."

I sighed. "You are the most stubborn creature on the planet, you know that?"

"Said the pot," replied Goombella, which got me to smirk.

"Alright, stay close," I said, putting my Nightmare hand to the ground. "And focus on what's most important to your heart."

"Got it," nodded Goombella, closing her eyes. I opened a portal below us and we both fell in.

* * *

_**Enter Flavi-**_

No. I refuse.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

Cortez jumped when we opened the portal directly in his cabin and ran through, clutching Flavio.

"THE PAIN!" he fell on the ground dramatically. "THE HORRIBLE PAIN! MY VERY SOUL…"

"Oh get up you big baby," Goombella rolled her eyes.

"Fools!" Cortez said after recovering. "I know not what black magic you've used to enter my chamber, but it won't do you a pint of good against…"

He blinked, looking at me.

"Oh." He sounded deflated. "It's you again."

"Yeah yeah, look," I said, holding out my hands. "We don't wanna hurt you, and we don't want you to hurt us. We just want to borrow your ship to fight the X-Nauts outside."

"X-Nauts?" Cortez asked. "So THAT'S the name of the guys who are hurting my island?"

"Yeah," Goombella nodded. "Those are the ones. Feel free to get angry enough to drag them to the Underwhere or something."

"And in return," I said, snatching Flavio's Crystal Skull from his grip and holding it up to show Cortez, "we'll give you this. You love treasure and all, so-"

"HEY!" Cortez looked furious, glaring at Flavio. "That skull belongs to me!"

"Screw you, this is MY skull!" Flavio said, jumping up and snatching the skull back.

"…what do you mean?" I asked Cortez.

"I mean a hundred years or so ago," Cortez said, "a group of greedy adventurers came in, stole a good chunk of my treasure, and left! That skull is one of them!"

"Funny," Flavio said in thought. "This has been in my family for a few hundred years or so, too."

"So you won't mind giving it back to me?" asked Cortez.

"Screw you old ghost!" Flavio said, hugging the skull.

"…give us a moment," I said, picking up and dragging Flavio into the other room.

"Nothing you say is going to make me change my mind!" Flavio said stubbornly. "Nothing you do is going to shake me either! …hey, what are you doing? Your hand looks a bit evil right now… what kind of language did you just say? Hey, what's-OH STARS! THIS IS WORSE THAN THE PAIN FROM THE PORTALS! OH PLEASE, END MY LIFE SO I DON'T HAVE TO SUFFER FROM THIS TORMENT!"

A few moments later, I dragged Flavio back into the room. His face was pale, and he was shaking.

"…you can have your skull back," he meeped, offering the Crystal Skull.

"What did you DO to him?" asked Goombella, looking at me with wide eyes.

"You know what the Nightmare word for fear is?" I smirked, flexing my Nightmare hand.

"…yeah, he totally deserved that," Goombella replied. "Nice one."

"Thanks, I like to think so," I nodded.

"Alright, so… you just want my ship, right?" asked Cortez. "Well _Señores_… and _señora_, I can do you one better than that!"

He focused his power, his eyes turning red, and suddenly, we were surrounded by Embers.

"In position!" he said, and the Embers left to obey.

"Sweet, so we have a whole army of fire at our side?" I asked.

"I love the undead," Goombella said. We all stared at her for a moment.

"What?" she shrugged. "Don't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing!"

"…anyway, FORWARD HO!" Cortez said, phasing to the deck of the ship. We followed on foot, and watched as the ship crashed through the wall as easily as if the wall was made of Styrofoam and circled the X-Naut Ship.

"Alright, now aim…" Crump said, pointing at our ship. "Now… FIRE AT WILL!"

There was a scream, multiple bangs, and the sound of someone dropping to the ground.

"…not William, you idiots! FIRE AT THE SHIP!"

"Oooooh…" The canons started firing at us.

"RETURN FIRE!" Cortez cried, and our cannons started hitting their ship. I stood straight up, glaring at Crump. My Nightmare hand started feeling like it was on fire, my claws twitching this way and that.

"Mario?" Goombella snapped me out of it. "What's wro-AUGH!"

Goombella fell back, and arrow lodged in her. I turned to look at an X-Naut, wielding a crossbow. I couldn't handle it anymore. It was like something snapped in my mind.

"_**INFECTION BEAM!**_" I held out my Nightmare hand, and it felt like all my impurities were sapped right out of my body and sent into my hand, which released a huge beam of darkness that covered the ship. I could feel the Crystal resisting, but the Infection Beam didn't care. It went right through it, shattering, hitting, infecting. When the beam faded, I noticed two things.

1: I was feeling much, MUCH better.

2: Everyone on the ship was turning into Nightmares.

I'll save you the details on what exactly happened to them, but I'll tell you it wasn't pleasant. After a moment, they all leapt onto our ship, not being able to stand on the Crystal ship. They surrounded us, snarling.

"Cortez, please get Goombella somewhere safe!" I said, summoning the Crystal Sword.

"Mario…" started Goombella, trying to stand up.

"Don't move, you're lucky the arrow didn't pierce any organs," Cortez said, using his ghost powers to pick up and carry away Goombella.

"Let go of me!" Goombella said. "Mario!"

I got into battle position, glaring at the Nightmares around me. "Bring it on, Neoshadow wannabes."

The Nightmares dashed at me, and I jumped into the air, stabbing the sword down. I sliced through the head of one Nightmare, and it screamed and exploded into darkness, fading away. I got on my knees and swiped horizontally, slashing through several Nightmares and turning them all into smoke. A Nightmare threw a punch at me, but I caught it in my Nightmare hand and stabbed him through the chest with my sword. As he exploded, I slid on my back and swiped up between the legs of a line of Nightmares, each one exploding into smoke. I flipped back around, while in the air tossing my sword. I landed on my feet and looked up at the long trail of smoke that came from the sword. I held out my hand, returning it to my hand in a flash of light. I stood back up straight, stabbing behind me to destroy a Nightmare that was about to strike me. I glared at the only two Nightmares left, and they glared at me. With a pair of snarls, they jumped, and I jumped as well. I spun through the air, swiping through them both and eliminating them both. I landed back on my feet and turned around, looking at the now-empty deck. Returning the sword in a flash of light, I leaned on a nearby rail and panted.

"Okay, that was… woof," I blinked. "Like, HUGE adrenalin rush right there."

Shaking my head, I ran back into the captain's cabin to make sure Goombella was still alright.

"…_I don't think they even NEEDED us!_" an Ember complained.

"_Ungrateful little… let's see how they feel next time they call us and WE DON'T COME!_" another Ember said, stomping his lower flame.

* * *

**Author's Note: So sorry for the constant hiatus… es. You see, I suffer from a disease called "chronic procrastination" which makes it difficult to write chapter after chapter. I'm doing my best, though! So anyway, that's it for this chapter, we're about to enter the next ark. And I'm not talking to you, Dr. Jones. So until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	47. Chapter 47: Three Sides, Ark 5

**Author's Note: Alright, I got a question for you guys… I wanna work on my other fanfic, and I was wondering if you would allow a schedule where every other day, I update a different fanfic. For example, Friday I would do the BSCB fanfic, then Monday LotDK, then Wednesday BSCB, Friday LotDK, and so on and so forth. Just leave your thoughts in the review. Welp, back to our mini-arks!**

* * *

_**Chapter 47: Three Sides, Ark 5**_

* * *

_**Enter Peach:**_

* * *

"TEC?" I asked, walking into the room. "You called me again?"

"YES, PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said. I stepped in fully in front of his monitor. "TODAY, I NEED YOU TO GRAB A DISK OF DATA FROM SIR GRODUS' ROOM."

"…you're kidding, right?" I asked. "What do you want me to do, crawl through the air ducts?"

"THAT WON'T BE NESSISARY," promised TEC. "I JUST NEED YOU TO TAKE A POTION THAT TURNS YOU INVISIBLE, SNEAK IN THERE, AND TAKE THE DISK."

"…you want me to take a potion that alters my body to the point of invisibility?" I asked, alarmed.

"PLEASE, PRINCESS PEACH," TEC said. "I NEED YOU TO DO THIS ONE THING FOR ME."

"…oh, alright," I sighed. "For you."

"THANK YOU," TEC said, sounding relieved. "PLEASE ENTER THE ELEVATOR AND FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS…"

* * *

"So you remember Edwin, from College?" an X-Naut grunt asked an X-Naut Scientist.

"Edwin Elric? Yeah, I remember him!" the Scientist nodded, looking up from his formula. "What about him?"

"Well he called me the other day, saying he made Cold Fusion," the Grunt said.

"You're kidding!" the Scientist laughed. "Who woulda thought?"

"But apparently, it's been destroyed five times," added the Grunt.

"…yeesh," the Scientist said. "Poor Edwin."

"I know, right?" the Grunt asked. "…hey, what are those over there, anyway?"

"Oh, those?" the Scientist asked, pointing at the turret-like things in the corner. "Those are Turrets. Don't worry though, they're full of tranquilizers, and they're perfectly harmless… unless, I don't know, the main computer hacks into them and-"

"THERE YOU ARE," the Turret suddenly said, shooting them both with tranquilizer darts and knocking them out. "IS ANYONE THERE? GOODNIGHT."

I stepped in from my hiding spot, staring at the Turret. "Pretty… polite."

"THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD LIGHTEN THE MOOD IF THE TURRETS WERE POLITE," agreed TEC. "NOW, THERE ARE NOTES ALL OVER THE PLACE IN THIS LAB. IF YOU FOLLOW THEM, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MAKE THE POTION."

"…TEC, this is a Logic Puzzle," I said, reading. "Green goes before Red, Red is after Blue… Why can't they have it straight-up the correct order?"

"IT'S A GAME THE SCIENTISTS PLAY WITH THEMSELVES TO ENCOURAGE QUICK THINKING," said TEC.

"…let me guess, you can't just give me the whole formula?" I sighed.

"UNFORTUNATLY, I DON'T KNOW THE WHOLE FORMULA," TEC said.

"Right… well, better get started," I said, cracking my knuckles and getting to the Logic puzzle.

* * *

_**About 5-10 Minutes Later…**_

* * *

"…you want me to WHAT?" I asked, staring at the potion in my hand.

"DRINK IT, PLEASE," TEC said. "IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN BECOME INVISIBLE."

"…oh the things I do," I sighed, gulping the potion down. My body shook, and I looked down to see my skin was invisible. My clothes were still showing though.

"I'M AFRAID YOU'LL HAVE TO-" started TEC.

"Take off my dress, I know…" I said, stripping off my dress.

* * *

_**Somewhere in the world, a Peach fanboy is doing something very inappropriate right now**_

* * *

"Alright…" I said, now in Grodus' room and searching through his stuff. "Disk, disk, disk… a diary?"

I opened it and flipped through it. "…he's had this since High School? Wow, I didn't know he used to do that!"

"…PRINCESS PEACH?" TEC asked. "THE DISK?"

"Huh? Oh right!" I said, putting his Diary away. I noticed something in it though, so I pulled it out again and shook out…

"The Disk!" I said, holding it in my hand. "Great, now… um… TEC? I can't carry it to you, someone will see it."

"I KNOW," TEC said. "JUST PUT IT IN HIS LAPTOP AND FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS."

After doing as TEC instructed and watching a cute little animation of an 8-Bit Mario and Luigi hop across the screen, I put the Disk back into Grodus' diary and snuck back out…

…just in time to bump into Grodus.

"Huh?" Grodus said, staggering back and looking around. "Who's there?"

I slowly crept around, not touching him, and made my way out of the door.

"Hm…" Grodus shook his head and sat down, pulling out his diary. I smirked to myself, glad I got out mostly undetected.

* * *

Patting down my dress, I walked back into TEC's room, visible again.

"So TEC?" I asked. "Did you get the stuff you needed off the disk?"

"…"

"TEC?" I asked, a little worried.

"…YOU MAY WRITE AN EMAIL TO MARIO NOW," TEC said. "I NEED TIME TO… ANALIZE THE DATA."

"Uh… right," I said, walking forward and typing up my email. After sending it, I walked back to my room, giving TEC one last worried glance before I left.

"Are you sure you're alright?" I asked.

"I AM… POSITIVE," TEC said. "PLEASE… RETURN TO YOUR ROOM."

"…okay," I said. "Goodnight TEC."

"GOODNIGHT PRINCESS PEACH."

The lights went off as I left, leaving the single glowing screen of TEC's.

* * *

_**Enter Bowser:**_

* * *

So yeah. I set off a bomb today. And it was TOTALLY on purpose! I went to this Twilight Town place, where Mario was, and I figured I could run into him and beat him up! On the way, near the entrance, I saw a group of losers in X Suits. They told me to get out of the area, but I said no! Kammy pulled a bomb out of a nearby bush and showed it to me. The X-Dudes demanded we give it back, but I said no! They said it was broken and unstable, but it looked fine to me! I threw it on the ground, and it didn't blow up. So, I breathed fire on it to set that puppy off! And MAN, was that an awesome boom! Seriously, that was awesome! So yeah… anyway, after that I totally and willingly went to a Hospital to take a nap in their comfy beds. And not because the explosion hurt me! I'm Bowser! I never get hurt! Now I'm going to take some more pain pills… because I feel like it!

* * *

_**Enter Edwin:**_

* * *

"Haha… FINALLY!" I said, holding up my creation. "It took many tries, but I have created COLD FUSION! And with me being in this cave, on a stranded island, away from any possible threat, there is no way this thing can be destroyed!"

I set my Cold Fusion on a rock and stepped back, taking a deep breath. Suddenly, the rock moved, revealing to be a Wacka.

"Hi!" the Wacka said. "How're you?"

I jumped on the creature. "DON'T TOUCH MY COLD FUSION!"

"Wacka-OWW!" the Wacka said, flailing. The Cold Fusion dropped off him and rolled down the cave floor.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" I shouted, chasing after it. As the Wacka burrowed into the ground, the Cold Fusion bounced into a cart and went down a rail-road track.

"Ticket, please?" an old Goomba asked, standing in front of me.

"Ticket?" I asked. "Look, I'm wanting to get my Cold Fusion over there!"

"SING!" the old Goomba said.

"…what?" I asked, burping up a music note out of nowhere.

"That works!" the Old Goomba said, grabbing the Music Note and pulling it like a lever. Suddenly, another train car drove in.

"Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all time, and HOLD ONTO YOUR UNDERWEAR!" he said, dragging both of us into the car and pulling the safety bar down. We suddenly shot forward and down, going through hills, loops, and we even jumped a chasm.

"MY COLD FUSION!" I said, looking at it floating next to us, falling to the ground. "How am I supposed to get it?"

"Use the Force!" the old Goomba said. "That always works!"

"…" I closed my eyes and focused on the Cold Fusion. It suddenly shot toward us…

…and flew over our head and crashed on the wall.

"…huh," the old Goomba said. "So it doesn't work after all. Well there goes my plan to save us from the fall."

"TAKE ME, DEATH!" I shouted, spreading my arms. "TAKE ME OUT OF THIS HORRIBLE WORLD!"

"Oh yeah, I remember!" the old Goomba said. "SUPER BALLOON POWERS GO!"

We were suddenly inside a red balloon, floating down.

"…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I shouted, banging on the sides of the balloon. "WHY ME? WHY?"

"Z!" the old Goomba said along with me. "Z me, too!"

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry it's not much, but I'm hoping your feedback will help me with the whole two fanfics things. Well, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	48. Chapter 48: To Upperclassville

**Author's Note: PICKLES! That is all.**

* * *

_**Chapter 48: To Upperclassville**_

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

There are a few things I hate. I hate feeling useless, I hate being immobile, and now to top it all, I hate crossbows. You know why I hate crossbows? It left me feeling useless and immobile. So it all ties up into a neat little bun of hate. With cinnamon glaze. And a tall glass of milk, refreshing and nourishing.

…sorry, Mario's rubbing off on me. Anyway, I was sitting on the deck of the ship, along with most everyone else. It was basically our party, Bobbery, Flavio, George, Iuka, and some of the stranded Toads.

"So you're sure you want to stay?" asked Mario to the Piantas.

"Yeah," Frankie nodded. "This would be a great place to live our new life."

"Take care not to get eaten by monsters!" Leon said, waving to them.

"We'll do our best!" Francisca replied, smiling and waving back.

"Alright, let's shove off!" Cortez said, spinning the wheel. "Next stop, Rougeport!"

…oh right, forgot to say. Turns out that after that battle, Cortez thought we were all pretty awesome. So, he decided that he'd give us all a ride back home. He was reluctant to let Flavio go at first, but we talked him into it after awhile.

Alright, now that's out of the way, I can get back to the present. Er, not PRESENT present, present in the story. Oh, you know what I mean! I was sitting next to the railing of the boat, watching the horizon.

"Familiar?" I turned my head to see Mario walk to me.

"Yeah… only it's daytime," I replied. "And we're on a different boat. And people are walking around. And we're not being attacked. So… yeah, nothing like last time, huh?"

Mario laughed. "Yeah, I guess…"

He leaned against the railing, standing next to me.

"Oi, Mario!" Mario turned his head to see Bobbery walk up to us.

"Hey Bobbery," he waved. "You need something?"

"I was wondering… might I go with your party on your quest?" he asked. "That adventure was good for me… I wouldn't mind a bit more."

"…well sure," Mario nodded. "I don't see why not. We all like you, and you'd make a great addition to our party."

"Thanks, Mario," nodded Bobbery, walking off again. Mario leaned against the railing, looking into the sky.

"Guess that makes us seven, now," he said.

"…sorry," I said.

"Huh?" Mario blinked at me, confused. "What for? Not saying anything while me and Bobbery were talking?"

"No, for being completely useless!" I replied. "I feel like a Sloth, not being able to do anything! First I was infected, forced to not do anything, then when I recovered, BAM! Hit with a crossbow!"

"Well none of that was really your fault," Mario reasoned. "That was my fault and the fault of the X-Nauts."

"The Nightmare thing was not your fault," I argued.

"But-" started Mario.

"Not. Your. Fault. How many times do I have to drill that into your head?"

"I guess as many times as I have to drill into your head it's not your fault?"

We both stared at each other for a moment.

"…oh you're good," I admitted.

"Thanks, I like to think so," smiled Mario.

"Well," I sighed, looking up in the sky, "I hope the next area doesn't have anything really strenuous. But then again, the chances of that happening are, what, one in a million?"

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"The next area doesn't have anything really strenuous!" said Prof. Frankly.

"…what?" I asked, blinking. "You're not serious."

We were in Prof. Frankly's house now. By we, of course, I mean me and my party. George and Iuka left back to the Inn, and everyone else on the boat were going through Rougeport and straightening out their lives.

"No, really!" Prof. Frankly said. "The Crystal Star, according to this map, is in Poshly Heights, the single LEAST dangerous place on this continent!"

"…that just guaranteed it's going to be dangerous, right?" I asked, looking around at my friends. "I mean… seriously?"

"No… no, from everything I've heard, there really is nothing dangerous there," Koops said, shaking his head.

"I've been there. It was AMAZING," Flurrie said with a sigh, remembering fonder times.

"Okay… so how do we get there?" I asked. "Fight through the sewers and solve multiple puzzles to open a path to an old dungeon, beat a rock monster, and continue on until we finally find a pipe that leads us into a riddle master's room?"

"Nope!" Prof. Frankly smiled. "That's the best part! To get there, you ride a very posh, very relaxing train ride there!"

"…what's the catch?" I asked. "There's GOTTA be a catch."

"Well… there is one small catch," Prof. Frankly said. "You can only get the tickets from the Don."

"You mean the same Don who specifically said he never wanted to see us again?" asked Goombella.

"Oh don't worry about that," I said, cracking my knuckles. "I have a plan. First, does anyone-"

"NO ONE HAS ANY NINJAS," everyone said.

"…okay, plan B!" I said. "First, we'll…"

* * *

"Da Don's sick as a dog!" one of the Don's body guards said.

"…well," I said, slipping out of my gorilla suit, "that kind of simplifies things."

"Aw man…" Leon said, stepping out of the giant ball of lint.

"What's wrong?" asked Goombella, limping over to him. "Why's he sick, I mean? Food poisoning?"

"No, nothin' like dat," the bodyguard shook his head. "He's just worried sick over his daughter! He'd do anything to see her back, safe and sound!"

"…her daughter?" I asked. "You mean… the one we JUST left on the island half a day's sail away by Cortez's ship?"

"You know where she is?" a bodyguard asked. "Well, if you get her back, I'm sure da Don will be MORE dan happy to give you whatever you wanted!"

"…excuse me," I said, stepping outside. One very loud, very long scream later, I walked back in.

"Okay…" I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. "I'm good."

"You sure?" the bodyguard asked. "'Cause if you need more time, I'm sure we all understand."

"No… thanks," I breathed. "I'm good. Really."

"Back to the boat then?" asked Goombella, limping.

"Back to the boat," I nodded. "Well… I guess the bright side is that by the time we finish this quest, you'll be all healed up, right?"

Goombella laughed. "That's one way to look at it!"

* * *

_**A comparatively quick yet still kinda long boat ride later…**_

* * *

"Frankie! Francisca!" I waved at the two Piantas as we ran up. "Listen, we need you to-"

"Oh, this is terrible!" Francisca said. "During our run through the island to escape the cannon blasts, I lost my wedding ring! I can't find it anywhere!"

"…I suppose you want us to find it for you?" I asked, twitching.

"That would be wonderful, thank you!" Francisca said happily.

"…you okay?" asked Frankie. "You're twitching like a Fuzzy on coffee."

"Oh no, I'm fine," I said. "You know, I always look forward to COMBING AN ENTIRE FLIPPING ISLAND TO FIND A TINY LITTLE RING BURIED IN THE GRASS."

"OKAY, let's go find that ring, 'kay hon?" asked Flurrie, picking me up and carrying me off. I was still twitching.

"Well… look on the bright side!" Koops tried. "It can't take us THAT long to find it, can it?"

* * *

_**18 Hours later…**_

* * *

"You found it!" Francisca said happily, taking the ring and putting it on her hand. "Now… what was it you wanted?"

"We need you… to come back… to Rougeport… so you can… cure your dad's… sickness of… not seeing you…" I panted.

"What?" Francisca asked. "No way! I couldn't forgive him for what he put Frankie through!"

"Now sugar plum… maybe it's best if we go back," Frankie reasoned.

"What?" Francisca asked. "Frankie, do you love me?"

"Of course I do!" Frankie replied.

"Then say it!" Francisca said stubbornly. "Tell me 'I love you' a hundred times! THEN we can continue!"

"…I lo-" started Frankie. He was interrupted by my blood curdling scream as I curled into fetal position, rocking on the ground.

"…okay, I'll go back," Francisca said, looking at me in concern. "He's… he's gonna be okay, right?"

"Hopefully when we get back on track to the star…" Goombella said as Flurrie picked my shivering body up again. We all walked back to the ship to sail back to Rougeport and get the tickets.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

Hey. It's me, Coron. I've come to deliver a message to you, the readers. Apparently, someone's being a lazy Author and decided to scrap the idea of me and the other me going through challenges in my heart. So, all of that you can just assume is going on inside Pax, and you'll see me in the final ark where I do my final climactic act. However, it won't be as climatic, as I've told the Author countless times, because THERE'S NO FREAKING SETUP. But, water under the bridge, I suppose. That's it, just keep on… doing whatever the hell it was you were doing before you read this.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey, I'm TRYING, Coron! Well anyway, I've decided to do the altering between this one and YM for the Monday-Wednesday-Friday Schedule. I've found that I write better chapters if I take breaks between them, so this way, you guys will be getting two fanfics, better chapters, and updated regularly! Everyone wins! Well, until Monday… wait, Monday is YM. Okay, until Wednesday then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**

**PS: Sorry for being late. Procrastination, thou art a heartless jerk.**


	49. Chapter 49: Brainwashing and Mysteries

**Author's Note: *Cough, sniff* Geeze… I'm coming down with something hard. And all this school work really isn't helping… but aw well, what can ya do? Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 49: Of Brainwashing and Mysteries**_

* * *

_**Enter Ms. Mowz:**_

* * *

"Hmm…" I said, watching that handsome plumber board the Excess Express with all those other friends of his. "Mario, my hunky slice of cheese, what ARE you doing?"

I felt someone move behind me as I watched them. When I turned around, a giant pair of gloved hands grabbed me and held me tight.

"Hey!" I was about to do my trademarked master-escape, but the hands-which were connected to a very large creature-started glowing and I could feel my power of escape drain from me.

"What… what did you just do to me?" I asked, suddenly exhausted.

"Don't worry, the ability zap is only temporary…" An old purple… thing walked up to me, smirking from under her witch's hat. "My my… I bet you're really good at sneaking into places, eh? A little spy?"

"What's it to you?" I snapped.

"But we'll have to do something about that attitude…" she sneered as she held out her hand, darkness building in her palm. Suddenly, standing there was a black… thing.

"Wh… what IS that?" I asked, trying to struggle, but failing.

"Oh you'll find out soon enough," she said, slamming the creature onto my head. I screamed as it burrowed into my head, then… everything went blank. There were no thoughts, no… well, nothing. It felt kind of good, not thinking or anything.

"You are now under my control," the voice of the Witch said, echoing in my head. I nodded, because, well, at the time that sounded perfectly reasonable.

"You will sneak onto the Excess Express and spy on Mario for us," she continued. She held out her hand and placed an orb of darkness into my paw, which absorbed into my arm.

"When you reach the stop for gas," she said, "you will drop these creatures off at the switch to lower the bridge. Do you understand?"

"Yes…" I answered. I did understand everything they said, and I had every intention of doing it.

"Then go!" she pointed. "Go and do my bidding slave!"

The big one dropped me and I left to sneak onto the train.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"I love trains," I said happily as the train set off. We were all in the guy's room (thankfully the Don was kind enough to give us two rooms) and watching the station pass.

"This is, like, the train that EVERY kid wants to ride!" Goombella said. "And teenagers. And adults. And… okay, pretty much everyone on the planet. My point is, c'mon, we gotta check this train out!"

"You guys can," I said, jumping into the bed. "I'm gonna sleep."

"How can you sleep while on this amazing train?" Flurrie asked. "I remember as an actress, even I couldn't get in!"

"Simple," I replied. "I've been through hell to get here, and it's supposed to be a relaxing three day ride. I hope that if I just sleep for the next 72 hours, nothing bad is gonna happen."

"OH NO!" someone shouted. "SOMETHING BAD JUST HAPPENED!"

"…I REALLY want to curse right now," I growled, covering my head with a pillow.

"We're gonna help, right Pax?" asked Leon.

"Well… part of me wants to ignore it, but a stronger part wants to see if I can't help," I sighed, standing back up. "Let's check it out. Hopefully it's nothing stupid like a missing pot."

* * *

"I'm missing my cooking pot!" the head chef cried out.

I twitched.

"Missing… your cooking…" I started.

"When did you have it last?" Bobbery asked as Goombella tried to calm me down.

"Five minutes ago!" the chef, who turned out to be a Cheep-Cheep, said. "I turned my back for a minute, and it just vanished!"

"Well… don't you have spares?" Vivian asked.

"Yes, but that's my favorite pot!" he said. "My lucky pot! I even have a long story about how I crossed into a far off country and-"

"NO WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR THAT STORY," I snapped.

"…well then," the chef huffed.

"Don't worry!" Leon said. "We can find that pot for you! Right?"

"…suuuure," I growled, my fists shaking.

"Thanks!" the chef said. "Remember, today's dinner depends completely on you!"

"Alright," I said, turning around. "It's not THAT big of a train, we can easily-THERE IS AN OBVIOUS TRAIL OF SOUP RIGHT HERE."

"Really?" the Chef looked where I was pointing. "Huh. Guess you better follow it, huh?"

"WHAT'S PREVENTING YOU FROM DOING JUST THAT?" I shouted.

"I have to start cooking!" the chef said. "But I can't cook until you find my pot, so I just have to stand in this spot and look important!"

"ALRIGHT let's follow this trail, shall we?" asked Koops, grabbing my arms and dragging me along. Right on time, too: I was just about to snap right then.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

Alright. So apparently, you lot actually like reading these sections. Quite a few of you seemed upset that I wouldn't be doing this part until the end. Well thanks a lot, I thought I could slip by without having to be tortured by that other me. But nooooo, YOU had to demand more of this. I hope Karma comes around to bite you in the ass.

So anyway, just to clarify, remember that scene I had last? In the cave? Well forget that scene. It never happened. Good? Good. Now, the story.

Other me and I were walking through a train, similar to the one Pax was riding. The inside was foggy, and the doors had windows that showed my memories.

"What's this?" I asked, rapping a window. "The Train of Memories?"

"Close," the other me said. "The passengers on this train are all the people you're infected over the years."

"Joy," I said sarcastically. "So let me guess, I'm stuck on this train until I make amends to every single one?"

"You wish," the other me laughed. "No, you're just plain stuck on this train. Revenge is a dish best served cold, they say…"

The door next to me opened, showing the outline of a little girl before a Nightmare took her place and lunged at me.

"So in this case, this train might as well be in a freezer!" the other me finished as I ducked under the lunge and kicked the Nightmare in the gut.

"…that is the WORST pun I have ever heard," I told him. "I mean… freezer? Where did you get that one from, a Cracker Jack box?"

"Sh-shut up!" the other me said, stomping his foot in mid-air. "Look, you won't escape until you find the door that will take you out of here! Good luck finding it in a train full of bad memories!"

He laughed as he vanished, leaving me with two more Nightmares at my sides.

"This is gonna be a looong day," I sighed. I ducked under the attack of one Nightmare and dove into a nearby door. There was a flash of light, and I was in a mansion.

"No! Please!" I turned my head to see a past version of me pick up and old man and cruely infect him before throwing him to the ground.

"Booooring," he taunted. "You could have at least put up a decent fight, you know."

"Oh yeah," I sighed at the memory. "I remember that. I was a flipping idiot back then."

"You could argue you're an idiot right now," the other me said, floating next to me.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" I swatted at him, making him vanish. So too did the past me vanish, and the old man turned into a Nightmare and jumped at me. I held out my claws and turned them into a shield, but that Nightmare was STRONG. He grabbed the shield and ripped it in two. I screamed as black blood bled out and I turned my claws back into claws, looking at both of them having chunks ripped out. The Nightmare lunged again, but I rolled under it and cupped my hands together, waiting for the chunks to grow back. I saw the front door and ran out through it. In a flash of light, I was standing outside a different door in the train.

"Okay…" I said to myself. "So each door leads to a memory. Go through a door in the memory and I wind up through a different door in the train. Gotta find the one door that'll take me off this train for good."

Three doors opened, revealing three more Nightmares, circling me like beasts.

"…well on the bright side, I won't be bored."

Great. Now Pax's optimism was rubbing off on me.

I jumped over the three Nightmares, which rammed head-first into each other, and dashed through the train.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"WHAT?" the morbidly obese Toad asked as we entered his room. "Oh sure, a pot full of soup disappears, and everyone blames the fat kid! This is segregation!"

"A clear trail of soup leads from the kitchen into here," Koops pointed.

"…so?" the Toad asked.

"Look," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I've had a LONG day, and I want it over with. So just give up the pot, PLEASE."

"Well… what makes you think I have the pot?"

"THE CLEAR TRAIL THAT LEADS-"

"Check it out!" Goombella pulled a pot out from under the Toad's bed. "What do you call this?"

"…alright, I admit it!" the Toad said. "I stole the pot, I couldn't wait to eat the delicious soup! Please don't hurt me!"

"…we're not going to hurt you," I sighed, patting him on the shoulder. "Just don't do it again, okay? Next time we'll have to take serious measures."

"We do?" asked Koops. Leon stepped on his foot.

"OW! Uh… yeah, we do!" Koops said. "Geeze that hurt…"

"Okay!" the Toad nodded. "Tell the chef I'm sorry?"

"Sure," I replied with a nod.

* * *

"All is forgiven!" the Chef said, taking the pot back. "I'm actually a little giddy that someone would willingly commit a crime just to get some of my soup!"

"That was good detective work you did," a penguin in a Sherlock Holmes hat and cape said, walking up to me.

"…who are you?" Vivian asked.

"I am the great detective, Pennington!" the penguin said. "Watch, as I deduce your identity!"

"That's really not that hard," I said, rolling my eyes. "Not to sound pompous or anything, but I am pretty recogniza-"

"You're Luigi!" he said.

"…what?" I asked. "No, I'm-"

"So Luigi, would you like to help me find some other items that have been stolen from passengers?"

"I actually would rather just"

"Excellent! Come talk to me when you're ready!" He walked away before I could say anything.

"…this is gonna be a long three days," I sighed, shaking my head.

"At least we won't be bored, right?" Goombella said, trying to cheer me up.

"Yeah," I nodded, then paused. "Whoa… déjà vu."

* * *

**Author's Note: Yeah, Coron's back. But you won't see more 'till Monday, sorry. Well, until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	50. A Message from Coron

**Author's Note: Alright guys, let's-hey, it's Coron! Hi, Coron! What are you doing with that hammer-*BAM!***

* * *

_**A Message from Coron**_

* * *

Alright, listen up. Pax is exhausted. He has this fanfic, the new fanfic, a webcomic, schoolwork, and he's still looking for a job. He's losing sleep and killing himself through exhaustion to make you people happy. Are you happy with yourselves, monsters? He's taking a week off, and if any of you want more from him, then shove it.

Also, I've been getting word you guys demand more scenes of me. Well suck it up, I'm not doing any more until the end. And not just because it's all about torture, it's because… well, think about it. Just LOOK at my recent chapters. Is there anything behind it? No, it's all just stuff to please you annoying fans. Pax can't keep on pumping them out for you greedy monsters. I will be back, just be PATIENT.

And if any of you THINK of complaining, just remember I can find you. I hunt in dreams, all it takes is one little nap, and BAM.

* * *

**Author's Note: Oh my head… huh? Oh Coron! …he is kinda right though. Not about you guys are monsters, you're great! Just… yeah, I need a break, if anything to relive some of this stress of mine. And I'd really like not having more Coron scenes. So… um… yeah. Well, until next week, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out.**

**PS: If anyone knows of any good massuse, let me know.**


	51. Chapter 50: The Stowaway

**Author's Note: Alright… I've got All American Rejects playing (shut up I like them) and a Paper Mario walkthrough to freshen my memory at parts. Let's DO THIS!**

* * *

_**Chapter 50: The Stowaway**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…so let me get this straight," I started. "There's a kleptomaniac on this train?"

"Very good Luigi!" Pennington said. "How did you ever guess that?"

"The celebrity lost her ring, the waitress lost her earrings, and you lost your hat," I pointed at his bare head.

"Ha!" Pennington said, patting his own head. "Silly Luigi! I'm a detective! I'd never let my hat get out of my…"

He paused, eyes widening as he realized he lost his hat.

"MY HAT!" he panicked. "WHERE DID MY HAT GO? SOMEONE MUST HAVE STOLEN IT!"

"…so anyway," I said, turning, "we better skedattle."

"But wait!" Pennington said. "Now it's personal for both of us!"

"…both of us?" I asked. "What do you mean by-"

"Hello?" Goombella interrupted. "Does no one remember us? Your friends?"

"Who're they?" Pennington asked. "Your personal servants?"

"THAT'S IT, I don't care HOW badly damaged that crossbow made me, I am going to tear his beak off and…" Goombella said in fury, starting toward Pennington only to be restrained by Vivian and Koops.

"It's not worth it!" said Koops pleadingly as Goombella struggled.

"Could you explain what you mean?" Bobbery asked Pennington.

"No one was talking to you senile old fart!" Pennington said. "I was talking to the grand Luigi! You know something, Luigi? I think you're a million times better than Mario, personally! What with his stupid red hat and his fat belly… he really needs to lay off the pasta, because he is HUUUUGE!"

"…" We all looked at each other, then back at Pennington.

"Wait, what are you doing?" asked Pennington, taking a step back as we approached him.

* * *

"You said you wanted a blanket?" I asked, offering one to the conductor of the ship.

"Oh thank you!" he said gratefully, taking it. "Where'd you find this on such short notice?"

"Well, we DIDN'T just take it from Pennington after knocking him unconscious and shoving him in the closet, if that's what you're asking!" Koops said, looking and sounding very nervous. "Why would you ask something like that?"

"…what?"

"NOTHING!"

"…right," the conductor blinked. "Anyway, did you have any luck finding out who the stowaway is?"

"No, sorry," I shook my head. "We're still looking around."

"You know," the conductor said, looking around before leaning in and whispering. "Don't tell anyone, but sometimes, I hear voices come from the room that no one ever enters."

"…shouldn't you be driving the train?" asked Flurrie.

"How can you drive a train, anyway?" Leon asked. "It's just on a track, right? So all you'd have to do is flip a switch to move it forward and let the train do the rest."

"Actually, it's a lot more complicated than that," the conductor said. "You see-"

"LET'S find that stowaway!" I said, pushing my friends out. "Quick, before he monologues!"

"…no one ever lets me monologue," the conductor sighed, turning back to his controls. "Bad guys, sure. Good guys? Of course. But train conductors? Nope, no love for us."

* * *

"Okay, so…" I said, looking around inside the room, "the ghost only comes out when no one's in the room?"

"How are you sure it's a ghost?" Vivian asked. Goombella beat me to the answer:

"Think about it. Strange noises in a train. No one ever goes in this room. It's on a train that's been running for a really long time. "

"Well… alright then," Vivian said.

"So how do we find this ghost?" asked Leon.

"And why?" asked Koops. "I mean, the conductor already has a blanket. Why not just live and let live? Or… well, you know what I mean."

I was about to answer, but then I started to think about it and realized he was right.

"…huh," I said. "I'm… not quite sure, really."

"Maybe the ghost will help us out later?" suggested Goombella.

"Right, that!" I said, pointing at her. "What would we do without you, Goombella?"

"Not have someone to point out the obvious," Goombella said bluntly.

"Alright…" I said. "I have a plan-"

My friends gave a collective groan.

"-that DOESN'T involve ninjas!"

This got their attention.

"We'll just hide behind the bed, in the closet, stuff like that," I said. "With the room seemingly empty, the ghost will come out!"

"…that's a TERRIBLE plan!" the ghost of a Toad floating near me said. "For one thing, I could totally see you hiding under my bed! And for another, how are you so sure I'd just appear the second you guys hide? It could take hours before I decide to reveal myself! And lastly, I'm still here, albeit invisible, when you do that! I can SEE you hiding!"

"Well why don't YOU give us a better plan, Mr. I-Know-Everything?" I asked, turning to the ghost. "It takes awhile to come up with a good plan, and… wait a second, aren't you the ghost?"

"…maybe," he said, realizing that he just revealed himself.

"That must have been your plan all along, right Pax?" Leon asked. "You tell us all a lousy plan, and the ghost comes out to correct you!"

"Er… sure, let's go with that," I said, rubbing the back of my head before turning back to the ghost. "So Ghost-"

"Save it," the ghost said. "I heard all about it while you guys were trespassing in my room."

"So… WILL you help us?" asked Koops.

"Hm… sure," the ghost shrugged. "BUT. I have one condition."

"Sure, what?" I asked. "…oh God, you're not going to ask us to take someone and sacrifice their souls to you, are you?"

"I call Pennington!" offered Goombella.

"Uh… no," the ghost said. "Nothing like that. You see, on my last train ride, I left my diary in the storage room at the back of the train. If you could get it back for me, I'd be willing to help you in whatever you need help in."

"Sounds like a deal!" I said.

"Just remember to-" started the ghost.

"Not read it, I gotcha," I said with the nod of my head. "I've helped get diaries back from trains before."

"…seriously?" asked the ghost. "When?"

I remembered a time back when I was about five or so.

"Er… well anyway, we may have a problem," I said. "They don't just let ANYONE into the storage room. I'm not sure if we'll be able to slip by."

"Oh don't worry," Goombella said. "Unlike you, I can think of good plans that don't involve Ninjas."

"…that hurt," I said.

"…sorry."

"You're forgiven."

"So anyway, my plan…"

* * *

The staff member was standing near the door of the storage room when Flurrie floated forward.

"Hey there," she said in her most seductive voice. "I wanted to ask a question about this train."

"Uhhhh…" the Toad began to drool, looking at her.

"Come over here a bit so I can ask?" Flurrie asked with a wink, waving her finger to have him move closer. He did, and as he did, Goombella and I snuck by silently.

"What was the question?" asked the Toad.

"Um…" Flurrie thought for a minute. "What's it like guarding a single spot for so long?"

"Well it's not easy," the Toad said. "First…"

* * *

_**Enter Ms. Mowz:**_

* * *

I was sitting on a crate, playing cards with myself as I waited to fulfill my Master's order. My Mouse ears picked up the slightest noise of a door opening, and I jumped behind the crate and looked to see Mario and that female Goomba come in. Since Master told me not to be seen, I stayed at that spot, watching them… search the area. Well, so long as they didn't look back behind this crate, I'd be perfectly-

"Hey Goombella," Mario said, "let's check out behind this crate. The book's probably deeper in the back of the room, anyway."

"Good idea," Goombella replied.

…well, still, I had time to sneak out of… no wait, they turned the corner before I had a chance to do anything. The mind-controlling thing Master put into me must have been slowing me down a bit, because I knew on any other day I could escape that. I'd complain if it weren't for the fact that… well, I'm a slave to mind control. You can't complain to that. It's against the rules or something.

Anyway, I didn't have time to run, so I pulled a leaf out of my acting book and froze in place. Mario and Goombella seemed startled when they saw me, but then relaxed as they got closer.

"Someone made a Ms. Mowz plush doll?" Goombella asked.

"Life sized, too," Mario added, picking me up. He squeezed me and I let out an involuntary squeak.

"It even squeaks when you squeeze it," Mario commented. "Though it's a little odd how warm it feels…"

"Maybe there's a heater near where it was kept?" suggested Goombella.

"Probably," Mario shrugged, throwing me behind his back. I managed to make myself squeak instead of grunt in pain when I hit the ground on the other side of the crate. After that, I just kept myself still and listened to them search.

"Book, book…" muttered Mario, searching through a pile of old stuff.

"Hey, uh… Mario?" Goombella asked.

"Yeah Goombella?" replied Mario.

"Well… I just had a question I've been wanting to ask you."

"Ask away, I'm all ears."

"Back at the island… and before that, I've noticed something…"

"Hm?"

"Just… could you explain your-"

"AHA! Found it!"

I saw Mario's hand raise, holding an old Diary or something.

"What was that you were about to say, Goombella?" Mario asked.

"…nothing," Goombella said. "Forget I said anything."

"Well if you say so…" Mario replied.

I let out a sigh of relief as they left the storage room, letting my body relax.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Here's your Diary!" I said, handing it to him.

"Thanks!" the ghost said, grabbing it and holding it under an arm. "To thank you, I'm going to give you some friendly warning… one person on this train has it out for you."

"…wait, what?" I asked, blinking. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean someone isn't who they say they are," the ghost said. "I'm not sure who, but I overheard someone talking to themselves about how by noon tomorrow, they were going to take down the train and everyone in it!"

"What?"

"No way!"

"No!"

"Holy crud!"

"This can't be!"

"By George!"

"Yup," nodded the ghost. "It's getting pretty late though… my suggestion to you mortals is to get some sleep and solve this mystery bright and early tomorrow."

"Early bird catches the worm, right," I nodded, waving as we left the room.

"Well… this is a plot twist," Bobbery said. "Most likely this is what Pennington tried to warn us about."

"We better not tell anyone though," I said. "We don't want to cause panic. That might just make whoever wants to blow this train up strike even faster."

"Smart," agreed Goombella.

"Aw, you really think so?"

"…wait," Vivian said. "Where's Flurrie?"

We looked around, confused for a moment, before I remembered where Flurrie was.

"She's going to kill us…" I muttered, face-palming.

* * *

_**Enter Flurrie:**_

* * *

_What's taking them so long?_ I thought, trying to pay attention to the toad guard going on and on.

"…and that's basically how I do it," he said. "Now I better get back to my post."

"No, wait!" I said. "Um… have there been any guards before you?"

"Well, yes!" the guard said. "Several, each with their own interesting life story!"

"Fascinating," I said. "Tell me more."

"It all started way back when the Excess Express first started running…" the Toad began.

* * *

**Author's Note: I have a feeling Flurrie's gonna be there awhile. Anyway, I THINK I may have gotten a job at Pizza Hut, but I'm not sure. My Application's in, they like my attitude, and they have a job opening, now let's all just cross our fingers and hope for the best. Well, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	52. Chapter 51: Boom Goes the Breifcase

**Author's Note: Hey, did you know that surface tension is caused by cohesion on the surface of a body of water? Or that Amino Acids aren't proteins until they have a peptide bond connecting them, and the cell membrane is made of Phospholipids and Proteins? Did you also know that I've been studying for my Biology class? Well anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 51: Boom Goes the Briefcase**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

I was resting peacefully and soundly in my bed, the sound of the train wheels against the tracks soothing my mind, when…

"AUGH! HELP!"

I suddenly bolted upright in bed, which was a bad idea, since I was in the bottom bunk of a bunk bed.

"OW!" I rubbed my head in pain.

"Are you okay?" Koops asked, stepping down from the top bunk.

"Head hurts a little, but I'm alright," I said, sliding out of my bunk and rubbing my head. "The real question is who screamed and why?"

We soon had our answer: A Rat Businessman (the irony of this almost made me have to leave the room in laughter) had screamed because he lost his briefcase.

"Well it's just a briefcase, right?" asked Goombella when he told us this. "Worst case scenario, your boss chews you out for losing a few papers."

"You don't understand!" the Rat said. "That suitcase held an experimental hot sauce!"

"…why would you keep…" I started. Everyone looked at me, but I just sighed and shook my head.

"On second thought, I shouldn't even really be asking these questions anymore," I said. "Continue."

"This experimental hot sauce, though…" the Rat said. "It's highly dangerous!"

"How dangerous could some hot sauce really be?" Leon asked.

"If mixed with Coral and Gold, a chemical reaction will take place creating a HUGE explosion!" the Rat said in a panic.

"You mean like some Coral Earrings and a Gold Ring?" I moaned, face-palming.

"That's it!" the Rat said. "That would easily do it! Why?"

"Oh… no real reason," I said as calmly as possible, waving my hand. "Don't worry, we'll get right on it. Come on guys, let's go back to our room and… think this over."

* * *

"WE HAVE A BOMB ON THE TRAIN WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" shouted Koops in our room, running back and forth.

"Koops!" Vivian caught him and held him by the shoulders. "Please. Calm down."

"Calm down?" Koops asked, but he did seem calmer with Vivian gripping his shoulders. "We have a BOMB on this train! If that thing goes off, we're all toast!"

"And it won't help anyone if we panic," Goombella said. "Now, we've gotta keep this under wraps. If anyone else hears about this bomb, we'll have a widespread panic on our hands… or lack thereof."

"Luckily," I said, pulling out a stack of papers, "I managed to swipe these from Pennington's room."

"Is he alright?" Vivian asked.

"Oh he's fine," I said dismissively. "Perfectly comfy in that closet, I even threw some food in there before re-enforcing the lock on it."

"Nice one," Goombella encouraged.

"Should we let him out when we reach the town?" Vivian asked. We all paused to think.

"…we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," I shook my head and looked at the notes. "Alright… well, he's been on this lead and has a few clues to guide us."

"An idiot's clue is better than no clue," Goombella said. "What are they?"

"Exhibit A," I said, pulling out a picture. "…a picture of the Bob-Omb family and a little arrow pointing to them saying 'they explode, watch out'."

"Why that little… I've never been more insulted in my life!" Bobbery huffed. "Just because we CAN explode doesn't mean we blow up trains!"

"Exhibit B," I said, pulling out the next picture. "A poorly drawn picture of the missing items."

"Is that Pennington on the botton of the page with a cowboy hat?" asked Leon, pointing.

"Huh, that's supposed to be Pennington?" I asked, squinting at it.

"If you ask me, it looks more like a cheese ball," Goombella said.

"With a beak?" replied Leon. "Nah, you can at least tell it's a bird."

"I dunno," Koops said, looking at the picture. "What do you think, Flurrie? …Flurrie?"

* * *

_**Enter Flurrie:**_

* * *

"…and THEN, back in the 50s, the Train Guard Union was set up," the guard continued. "That's when my grand pappy was born, you see. It was a cloudy night in a big city…"

_Oh Stars strike me down,_ I thought, my eye twitching.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…eh, I'm sure she's sleeping in," I shrugged, moving on. "Now Exhibit C… a detailed map of the train with side notes of the exact chemical compound of the hot sauce and how it reacts with the coral and-holy frig!"

"So Pennington's an idiot savant?" asked Goombella, looking over the figures. "Dang, he actually wrote all that correctly…"

"No, I refuse to believe he wrote all this," I shook my head. "Nuh-uh, no way."

"Well if he didn't, who did?" reasoned Koops.

"…wait a minute," I blinked, looking up at him. "Koops, you're a genius!"

"…I am?" Koops asked.

"There are only two people who would make something like this," I said, holding up the plans. "A GOOD detective, and the person wanting to blow up the train. Seeing as there are no good detectives on this train, that only leaves the latter. Now, if we can figure out where Pennington found this and trace it to whoever wrote it out…"

"We'll find the guy trying to blow us up!" Goombella finished. "You're right! Koops, you ARE a genius!"

"I… well, I guess I am!" Koops said proudly, his fists at his sides.

"So now we gotta figure out where Pennington found this," I said, looking at the plans.

"How do we do that?" asked Vivian.

* * *

_**Moments Later…**_

* * *

I shined a lamp into Pennington's face. We were back in his room, and I set up his table and chair as an interrogation area.

"Pennington!" I said. "We know you found these plans, so talk! Where did you find them?"

"Alright, just back off!" Pennington said, standing up. "If anyone's going to be doing the questioning, it's ME!"

He then pushed me out of the way and stood at the other side of the table.

"You feelin' LUCKY, punk?" he asked before running back to the chair.

"What do you mean?" He ran back to the interrogator's side.

"DON'T play dumb!" he hit his fist against the table. "Even though it may be a little hard for you."

"Now that's just uncalled for!"

"I'M the law, I say what's uncalled for! Now TALK!" He pushed the papers toward the empty chair. "Where did you get these?"

"I told you," Pennington said, sitting in the chair and looking at the papers, "I made them myself!"

"You've told that story a thousand times, but I don't want to hear stories!" Pennington made a slapping motion, then sat down in the chair and slapped himself across the face.

"This train is in DANGER!" Pennington continued, standing as interrogator. "And if you don't talk, you'll blow up along with us all! IF we let you go that far…"

"N-now come on…" Pennington twiddled his thumbs nervously. "You don't mean that, right? You're joking?"

"I never joke."

Pennington gulped.

"Alright, alright!" he said, covering his head. "I found it in Zip Toad's dresser while he was out to eat! I thought it was a script for a new movie he was in! Please, have mercy!"

"Hmph." Pennington turned to us. "I'm done with this punk. Take him away."

We all looked at each other, then back at Pennington.

"Okay," I shrugged, picking up Pennington and shoving him back in the closet.

"So Zip Toad?" asked Goombella. "Why don't we give him a little talk?"

"Right," I nodded, leading the group out of the room. As soon as I opened the door to Zip Toad's room, he turned around, holding the suitcase open with the gold ring and corral earrings above it.

"Dude," I said, holding out my hands. "Don't do it. You'll go down too!"

"No I won't!" Zip Toad said, glaring at me. "You, Mr. Perfect, will PAY for thwarting me!"

"…thwarting you?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

I motioned with my hand behind my back for Vivian to move through the shadows. I guessed she got the message because I felt my Nightmare hand react to a Nightmare power happening.

"You don't recognize me, do you?" asked Zip Toad.

"…no, I've never seen any of your movies," I shook my head. "Are they any good?"

"Oh I guess, if you're into that sort of thing," Goombella shrugged. I could tell she was trying her hardest to stay calm. "I mean, they're sort of movie length soap operas."

"I happen to like them, personally," shrugged Zip Toad. "I mean, five stars by the cri-WHAT am I saying? I'm NOT Zip Toad! I'm…"

There was an explosion of purple smoke, and standing there was…

"The Body Snatcher!" I gasped.

"…my name's Doopliss, you know," the body snatcher said. "Not like it did me any good, keeping my name hidden…"

"But… but I destroyed you!" I said. "Well… technically I blasted you out of my body, then the Nightmare body lost my soul, then my soul went back into my own body."

"Yeah, and that blast took me somewhere REALLY strange," Doopliss said. "Everything was dark and scary, but then these two Nightmares in witch hats came. They told me they'd make me immortal if I would just blow you and this train up!"

"…wait a minute, WHY would you want to be immortal?" I asked. "That's pretty impractical. I mean, you get to watch countless wars and stuff, never get to move on to another life or anything…"

"Well… shut up!" Doopliss said. "It's cool! And why am I still talking to you? I have a bomb to set off!"

"How will you do that without your stuff?" I asked, pointing. He turned around to see Vivian holding the ring and earrings. He looked down to his hands and saw they were empty.

"…oh COME ON!" Doopliss stomped his foot. "That's not fair!"

"Now then…" I summoned my sword. "Do you want the easy way or the hard way?"

Doopliss looked at how hopelessly outmatched he was.

"…easy, please," he bowed his head, holding out his hands.

"That's better," I said, taking his wrists in my Nightmare hand, transforming it into a locked rock-hard block of Nightmare flesh before dragging him out.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry for the late update. And in case you're wondering, yes, I did well on my test! Also, I figured out how to make money AND raise my school's average GPA: I'll start a tutoring business! Welp, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	53. Chapter 52: Riverside Station

**Author's Note: And here's the part where we reach the part where we foreshadow the part that's close to the part that's almost to the ending… part. Of this part. Yeah. SO, who wants to read a chapter, eh?**

* * *

_**Chapter 52: Riverside Station**_

* * *

_**Enter some random guard:**_

* * *

Uh… hi. I really don't know where I am here. So, I just speak into this microphone and whatever I say is typed up on that screen there? Cool. So, uh… right. You want me to talk about that Doopliss person? Right, I remember that. We had pulled into Riverside Station, and me and my buddy Jeff pulled that Doopliss person out, holding onto his arms to keep him from escaping.

"Now then," Jeff said, "we'll just wait here for the authorities to arrive to take you away."

"Or, I have a better idea," Doopliss offered.

"Really?" I asked. "Please, do tell! I'm not looking forward to standing out here in the sun for so long."

"Hi-YEAH!" Doopliss exploded into purple smoke, and the next thing we knew, a bird was flying far away from us.

"…huh," I said. "Well… I didn't see that coming."

"Me neither," Jeff said. "…wanna go grab some lunch?"

"Nah," I said. "It's a little late for lunch. How about Linner?"

"Lunch and Dinner together? GENIUS!" Jeff said, fist-bumping me as we ran back into the train.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Ah…" I closed my eyes and stretched my legs. The sunset was beautiful, and it was just warm enough for me to face directly and sigh at. "Well, we caught the bad guy, so nothing can stop us from relaxing for the rest of this nice train ride…"

"Mario!" the conductor said, walking up to me.

"Ten coins says it has to do with keeping us from going forward," Goombella said.

"The bridge won't open!" the conductor said. "We can't go forward!"

"Thank you, and goodnight," Goombella said, taking a little bow.

"What do you mean the bridge won't open?" I asked.

"The switch we have to open and close it, it's stuck and broken on open," the conductor explained.

"Don't you have a backup or something?" asked Leon. "There's a backup for everything, isn't there?"

"Well yes, but…" the conductor started.

"There's also always a but to everything," I informed Leon. Leon couldn't help but snicker at this.

"…the backup switch is at the bottom of the station," the conductor continued, jabbing his thumb at an old rundown train station.

"There's an elevator that leads down to the switch, right?" asked Vivian.

"Of course!" the Conductor said.

"But…" started Goombella, rolling her eyes.

"…but the power's been cut for years," the conductor continued. "Thankfully, there's a spot at the top of the station that can run the power again."

"Buuuuut," I added in, waving my fingers as if conducting an orchestra.

"…but there are monsters in the path ahead," the conductor finished.

"So let's recap," I said, holding out my fingers and counting them off. "We have to climb up the station, turn on the power, climb down the station, ride a rickety elevator down, flip the switch, ride the elevator back up, and ride the train to Poshly Heights?"

"That's about the size of it," nodded the conductor.

"Alright," I nodded. "It shouldn't take us long. Goombella-"

"If you're going to finish that sentence with 'stay here' then I will rip your tongue out and choke you with it," Goombella threatened.

"Goombella," I tried to reason, "you're still hurt."

"And I healed!" Goombella said.

"…you healed from a crossbow injury in only a few days?" I asked.

"Healed enough to fight," Goombella said. She demonstrated this by jumping in the air and feigning a Headbonk.

"See?" she asked, standing to face me and hiding a wince. "I'm totally fine."

"…well, alright," I sighed. "Not like I can stop you anyway."

"You're darn right," she smirked. "Now come on, we got a switch to flip!"

"That kind of lame line sounds like something I would say," I laughed, walking with her to the old rundown station.

"I realized that as I said it," Goombella replied as my friends walked behind us.

"…OH!" the conductor said. "They meant butt, as in the rear end! Now that's funny!"

He laughed and leaned against the train. "Comic genius!"

"…you don't spend much time with other people, do you?" Bobbery, who was at the tail end of the group, asked.

"No…" the conductor sniffed. With the shake of his head and a sigh, Bobbery ran back to follow us inside.

* * *

_**Enter Ms. Mowz:**_

* * *

_Wake up, my Slave, _Master's voice came in my head, waking me up from my nap.

"Master?" I asked, standing up. "Is that you? How do you talk to me out of nowhere like that?"

_I'm speaking to you through the creature controlling you… _Master replied._ And that's MISTRESS, not Master! Get it right!_

"I'm sorry Master, I'll get it right," I apologized.

_Mistress!_

"Right, Mistress. Understood Master."

_STOP CALLING ME… you know what? Never mind! Master will do!_

"Okay Mistress. I'll call you Master."

…_just listen to my instructions. The fools are already here, working to get power to the elevator down to the backup switch. I command you to go to that switch and spread out the creature controlling you, allow it to copy itself into a large mass._

"Understood Master," I nodded, jumping out of a window and sneaking into the building without anyone seeing me. "I shall get there as fast as possible."

_Perfect, _Master said. _Now pay close attention… you should wait by the elevator for the group to turn it on, then-_

"Hey," I interrupted. "I don't tell you how to tell me to do things, so don't tell me how to tell you to tell me how to break into a room. I'm the greatest thief in the world, I can get past a simple broken elevator."

By that point, I was already in front of the elevator. Using my tail, I picked the lock on the chains that kept the elevator door closed, making it collapse on the ground. I pried the doors open, and looked at the ceiling for an emergency exit. After locating it, I flipped through the air and kicked the door open, jumping up through it into the elevator shaft. Fortunately, there was space enough to fit my head through between the elevator and the shaft.

Fun fact: Mice can squeeze into any space their head fits. So you can gather that it was incredibly easy for me to squeeze past the elevator and at the bottom, the long shaft going down. I slid down on my hand and jumped wall to wall, going down and eventually landing on my feet in the room with the switch.

"And I did it ALL in heels," I bragged.

_Just… just spread the creatures, _Master said with a sigh.

"Alright!" I said, walking to the switch. "…how do I do that?"

_Reach to the back of your head and pull the creature out,_ Master said.

"Okay!" I reached. "…wait, this is gonna hurt, won't it?"

_JUST DO IT!_

"Yes Master!" I pulled it out, and good STARS, it hurt! I blinked in pain and…

…wait. Where was I? Why was I holding a black creature in my hand? The last thing I remembered was being captured by those two witches, and…

"GAH!" I let go of the creature as it started to writhe in my hand. It screeched and ran to the switch, starting to split off and multiply.

"…alright, I'm getting OUT of here," I shook my head, looking around for an exit. Seeing the Elevator, I started to climb up the shaft.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Hi-YEAH!" Goombella Headbonked a monster into oblivion.

"Nice shot!" I walked up to her, patting her on the back.

"I know…" Goombella smirked, doing her best to not wince in pain. I could tell, but if I pointed it out I knew it would just make her push herself even harder.

We were all in the highest point in the station, which was an old, broken down room with filing cabinets rusted into nothing, broken windows, a trash chute, and…

"Hey look, there are two switches," pointed Koops.

"Two?" Bobbery asked. "That can't be right, the conductor said there was only one switch…"

"Well technically he said there was a switch," I corrected. "He never said if that was the ONLY switch."

"Now that's the kind of double-word crap that I would expect from a riddle master, not a train conductor," said Goombella.

"I dunno… train conductors happen to be pretty tricky…" I shuddered, remembering the train from my last adventure.

"Is there anything that says which is which?" asked Vivian.

"Yeah, actually," Koops read a nearby sign. "According to this, one of them will turn on the power, and the other will cause the place to self-destruct."

"…you're kidding," I said.

"No, it says right here," Koops pointed. Leon jumped to read it.

"If I could read, I would completely agree!" he said.

"I don't believe this!" I flung my hands into the air. "It's like the whole dang universe is conspiring to make my life hard! I mean, if it's not one thing, it's another! You'd think monsters would be enough, but no! We have to have a 50/50 chance of BLOWING THE WHOLE PLACE UP! And another thing…"

As I said this, I leaned against something. This something turned out to be one of the switches, which I accidentally turned on.

"…oops," I said, stepping back as the whole place started to shake. It looked like it was about to violently explode for a minute, then… all of the lights turned on, and some peppy music started playing from the intercom.

"…you are the LUCKIEST son of a gun I have ever met," Goombella said.

"I've been told," I blinked. "Well… guess we go back to the elevator, right?"

"No good, the door's locked!" Bobbery said, trying the door. "It must be an old fail-safe or something to keep someone from turning the power back on."

"You'd think the whole 'life or death' thing would work well enough," I muttered. Then louder: "So how do we get out of here?"

We all slowly turned our heads to the garbage chute.

"…is there really no other way?" sighed Goombella as I opened the chute and stepped in, ready to slide.

"…well I guess we COULD open a gate using my Nightmare Powers and-" I started, but I wound up slipping and falling down. The chute was like a winding slide that smelled REALLY bad, and the next thing I knew, I was on my face flat on the ground. Fortunately, I was right next to the elevator.

Unfortunately, my friends did the same as me and fell on my back, one after the other.

"Ow… is everyone alright?" asked Bobbery.

"Never better…" grunted Goombella.

"I'm fine," said Koops.

"That was fun! Smelly, but fun!" Leon said. "Let's do it again!"

"I'd rather not…" said Vivian.

"*MOAN*"

"Ah, Mario!"

My friends jumped off me and helped me back to my feet.

"Are you alright?" Goombella asked.

"I will be once I re-align my spine," I said. "But that's cool, we're right by the elevator now."

"…huh," Koops blinked. "Does anyone remember there being a lock just lying on the ground in front of the elevator?"

"Hey yeah," Goombella said as we stepped in. "And why is the emergency exit open?"

"Please, PLEASE don't let it be a setup to fight a monster," I begged, hitting the button to go down. The elevator moaned in protest, but it let us all down into the room…

…that had a whole bunch of black creatures in it.

"OH OF COURSE!" I threw my hands up in frustration. This caught the attention of the black creatures and they all jumped at us.

"_MUTUCS!_" shouted Vivian, holding out her hand. It morphed into a shield that covered us all, preventing the creatures from entering.

"Alright," I said, summoning my sword, "let's take care of this, once and for all! AND YOU GUYS BETTER BE THE LAST FLIPPING MONSTER WE SEE FOR A WHILE!"

A hole opened in the shield for me to run through, and I jumped into the air and slammed down with my sword, bathing some of the creatures in light and making them run away. I got up and spun a full circle, taking care of quite a few. I was about to do a sword toss, but when I pulled my hand back to do it, I noticed they all left.

"…huh," I said, making my sword vanish as Vivian dispelled the shield. "They must've ran away in fear or something."

"What were they, anyway?" Koops asked Goombella.

"I know a lot, but I don't know that," she shrugged. "Vivian, they looked like tiny Nightmares. Do YOU know what they were?"

"They looked… a little familiar, yes, but I can't put my finger on it…" Vivian said as I threw the switch. The sound of a bridge moving outside told us that it had worked.

"Yeah!" I fist-pumped. "C'mon guys, we have a lot of resting to do."

With that, we all entered the elevator and headed back up, returning to the train.

* * *

_**Enter Flurrie:**_

* * *

"…and that is how I came to be where I am today!" the guard finished. It was already late at night, around the same time he began his story.

"OH THANK YOU!" I hugged him. "THANK YOU FOR STOPPING!"

"Uh… you're welcome?" he said. "Now… if you'll excuse me, I have a post to return to."

"Oh, of course!" I agreed, turning around to return to my room. However, on the way, I saw a strange looking black creature.

"…huh?" I blinked, leaning in for a better look. "What are you?"

The creature screeched and jumped, attaching itself to my face.

* * *

**Author's Note: Bum bum buuuuuuum! What will happen next? You'll find out soon! Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	54. Chapter 53: Smorg

**Author's Note: And now, the epic final battle! Also it just happens to be the second-to-last chapter to this ark. Yeah. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 53: Smorg**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Good morning, day!" I yawned, waking up of my own accord. "I have a feeling today will be a nice and quiet day!"

I climbed out of bed and stretched, looking over to the top of the bunk bed. "Hey Leon, wanna grab some breakfast?"

I noticed that Leon wasn't there.

"…he must've already gone to eat," I said, leaving the room and heading to the diner cart. No one was there… not the chef, not Leon… no one.

"…starting to get a little eerie…" I said to myself, walking to Pennington's Room. I opened his closet to check and see if he was there. To my surprise, he wasn't.

"…okay, freak-out-meter is going up a few notches…" I said, backing out of the room and closing the door. I hurried through the other rooms in the train, every single one empty.

"…" I stopped in front of the girl's room, sighing. If no one's there, I can freak out totally. If the girls were in there, I can be relieved, but freak out because… yeah.

Eh. I was fourteen. I was willing to take my chances.

I threw the door open, ready to hear screams and get hit. To my dismay, neither happened. I opened my eyes to see the room was empty of everyone except…

"Vivian!" I sighed, running over and shaking her awake. "Thank God, I thought everyone up and vanished!"

"Huh… wha…?" Vivian blinked awake, then focused her eyes on me. Five seconds later, I had a hand-shaped slap mark across my cheek and Vivian was covering herself with the blanket, blushing.

"MARIO!" she said. "What are you doing in here?"

"Everyone on the train vanished and… OW!" I rubbed my face. "You slap hard!"

"You came in while I was sleeping!" Vivian replied.

"I don't see what the big deal is… You're a Nightmare, you literally have NOTHING to show!"

"It's the principal of… wait a second, you said everyone on the train's gone?" Vivian asked, stepping out of bed and putting her hat on.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Leon, the Chef, even Pennington."

"I wouldn't say gone…"

Vivian and I turned out heads to face Flurrie. She looked different, though. She held herself differently, her eyes looked different, and… there was a creepy black creature attached to her face.

"Holy crap!" I took a step back. "What the heck?"

"Join us…" Flurrie held out a hand as the black creatures we saw at Riverside Station started to come into the room. "Become one with Master Smorg. He lusts for more minds to capture."

"Smorg!" Vivian hit herself on the head. "Stupid! Of course, those black creatures were Smorg!"

"Okay, WHAT'S Smorg?" I asked.

"It's a group of black creatures, the ones we saw on the train station, that work with a Hive Mind," Vivian explained. "They attach themselves to people in a perversion of Nightmare Possession that strips the mind of free will and captures them to the main hive."

"I prefer my mind un-captured, thanks," I replied, summoning my sword. A Smorg jumped at me, and I sliced it out of the air. I couldn't catch another though, so it attached to the back of my head. I cried out, then… wait, the creature felt like it… was absorbed into me, and my Nightmare hand tingled.

"…what?" I took off my left glove and looked at the claw.

"Nightmare possession can't work on other Nightmares!" Vivian explained.

"Oh, so that's why we're the only ones un-captured by Smorg!" I nodded. "…wow, there's a lot of explaining going on right now, isn't there?"

"Yeah," Vivian nodded. "I'm just surprised that Smorg hasn't attacked us in the middle of a sentence yet."

"Oh give us a break," Flurrie said. "We may attack people while they're sleeping and take over their mind, but we're at least civilized!"

"So you humanly strip people of their free will?" I asked.

"Well when you put it that way…" Flurrie shrugged.

"Hey, could you hold still so I can kill that thing on your face now?" I asked, raising my sword. Flurrie jumped back in shock and quickly floated back toward the back of the train, the horde of Smorg following her.

"…you actually warned them ahead of time you were going to free her?" Vivian asked me.

"Hey, only Goombella's allowed to make comments about how I stupidly do-THOSE THINGS HAVE GOOMBELLA!" My mind suddenly shut down into a narrow one-track as I chased down the train after them.

"Mario, wait up!" Vivian shouted behind me, but right then, the only thing that mattered to me was getting Goombella back. I kicked open the door to the supply room, slashing through the horde that was in the room and hurrying into a hole in the ceiling. I jumped up from crate to crate to follow when my foot hit something soft.

"HEY!" I looked down to see Ms. Mowz rubbing her head.

"Oooh, it's you Mario," she said, her voice suddenly smoother. "Didn't mean to yell at you, hunky slice of cheese."

"…" I ignored her as I climbed through the ceiling.

"Who are you?" Vivian asked as she and Ms. Mowz climbed after me.

"I am the master thief, Ms. Mowz!" Ms. Mowz replied. The three of us were now running on top of the train, chasing down the Smorg horde to the other end.

"But… I don't get it, every other person on this train's been taken by Smorg, why aren't you?" asked Vivian.

"I'm not sure," Ms. Mowz said. "It worked just fine earlier, so…"

"Oh, I get it!" Vivian nodded. "Once you've been taken over once, you can't be taken over again!"

"…that's kind of a stupid limitation!" Ms. Mowz said. "I mean, what if you have to disconnect, then-"

A loud noise interrupted them. We all stopped in front of Smorg, which formed into a huge ball of Smorg creatures. Out of them came Koops, Pennington, the guard, and Goombella, all of them connected to the Smorg.

"You three… you'll cause us some trouble if we don't take care of you now," Koops said.

"Once we finish you, we'll spread across the city at the next stop and infect everyone there!" Pennington laughed.

"…by the Lord, your voice is annoying," the guard said, glaring at Pennington.

"Yeah… you're right," Pennington nodded. "I think I won't use this one for speech."

"THANK YOU!" I said, throwing my arms into the air.

"…where was I?" Goombella asked. "Oh yes. Soon, the world will belong to us! And there's nothing you can do about it!"

"I can slice you to bits!" I growled, gripping the Crystal Sword tight.

"Mario, no!" Vivian held me back by the arm. "Trust me, I want to hurt this thing as much as you do, but we can't just slice the Smorg off them! The shock could kill them!"

"Then what are we SUPPOSED to do?" I snapped.

"They'll have to leave willingly!" Ms. Mowz said. "When I was under, I was able to remove it because the voice that took on the role as my Master told me to!"

"Fat chance of that happening!" Koops ran forward and threw a punch at Vivian. She ducked under, backing off.

"Koops, please!" Vivian begged. "Fight it! You're stronger than this thing!"

"Koops isn't here anymore, just Smorg!" Koops laughed cruelly, kicking Vivian's feet from under her.

"I'll show that thing-" started Ms. Mowz.

"NO!" I grabbed her by the tail. She squeaked, and though I couldn't see it then, she blushed too.

"We can't hurt them!" I said. "That won't affect Smorg at all, that'll just hurt our friends!"

"Hi-YEAH!" Goombella jumped through the air and Headbonked me. I grunted as I fell back on the train on my back.

_Oh God, please… _I thought, shutting my eyes. _I need help… something… anything!_

* * *

_**Flashback!**_

* * *

"_Wow, you're pretty good kid!" Goompa said, dressed in a Pokémon Trainer's outfit as he put a Pok__é__ball away. "What's your name?"_

"_What the… Goompa?" I asked, looking down at the Dragon suit I was wearing. "What's going on? This never happened!"_

"_Well I'm Goompa!" Goompa explained. "Flashbacks with me in them never make sense!"_

"…_wait, you just answered me logically?" I blinked in surprise. "But… you're crazy!"_

"_Normally, yes," Goompa nodded. "But this is a Flashback of events that never happened. Ergo, I am not quite as crazy as usual because that would never normally happen, and this flashback shows things that would never normally happen."_

_As if to prove this, a banana started to float nearby, baaing like a sheep._

"…_whatever, do you think you could help me?" I asked. "I need help!"_

"_Yes you do, but I'll also give you advice," Goompa said, sitting on a chocolate log and offering a seat next to him._

"_Hey!" I cried, but I sat next to him anyway. I peeled off a bit of the log and ate it._

"_Mmm, good dark chocolate…" I muttered._

"_You wanted advice?" Goompa reminded me._

"_Hm?" I turned back to him. "Oh yeah. Well right now, outside this Flashback, I'm fighting a creature called Smorg."_

"_That's the thing that possesses people and has a major lust for more minds to take over, right?" Goompa asked._

"_Yup," I nodded. "And see, that's the thing. It's possessed my friends, and I can't fight it because if I attack the Smorg, the shock could kill them. But if I attack my friends…"_

_I closed my eyes and shuddered._

"_I could never do that," I said. "Not to Leon or Koops… or Bobbery or…"_

"_Goombella?" Goompa asked, smirking a little. I nodded._

"_Well… I have an idea on what you could do, but you won't like it," Goompa sighed, looking up into the tie-died sky._

"_I'll do ANYTHING at this point," I said. Goompa pulled a whistle that looked like a snail out of his pocket and handed it to me._

"_If you blow on this, I'll come to help you in the future," Goompa said._

"…_I'll have to deal with the crazy you?" I sighed._

"_It's that or hurt your friends," Goompa said._

"_That's low and you know it!" I snapped_

"_True… but you admit it's the only way?" Goompa asked. I glared for a moment, then sighed._

"_Yeah, you're right," I said, pocketing the whistle. I turned to Goompa and smiled._

"_You know… I kind of like you like this," I said. "You're not nearly as irritating."_

"_Don't get used to it," laughed Goompa. "Now open your eyes boy, you have some friends to save."_

_I nodded. "Thanks again, Goompa!"_

* * *

_**End Flashback!**_

* * *

I opened my eyes, back on the train.

"MARIO!" Ms. Mowz pulled me out of the way in time to keep me from being blown up by Bobbery.

"This is NO time to be zoning out!" she said. "We're in crisis here!"

"…wait!" I stood up and reached into my pocket. Sure enough, I pulled out the same whistle from my flashback.

"What is that?" Ms. Mowz asked.

"Hopefully the thing that'll save all our butts," I said, putting it to my lips. "Here goes!"

I blew as hard as I could on the whistle.

"ALL ABOOOOOOARD!" a voice shouted from the whistle as it exploded. Music started to play as I heard a second train ride up in the distance.

"What… have I done?" I asked, knowing what was about to happen. Suddenly, the train zoomed next to ours and Goompa came out of the top, a neon sign saying "applause" over him.

"Thanks for the ride, Ozzy!" he said as he jumped to our train. "Sorry about those mental wounds not healing! I'm sure that makes life a shame."

"GOIN' OFF THE RAILS ON THE CRAZY TRAIN!" A fist came out of the window, giving Goompa a thumbs up as the train flew into the air and vanished.

"Hi everyone!" Goompa waved with a foot. "Who called me?"

Everyone pointed at me.

"Well congratulations!" Goompa was now wearing a tuxedo and speaking into a microphone, standing next to me. "You won our new Coconut shells!"

A string fell from the sky and Goompa pulled it. Coconut shells suddenly fell from the sky, landing on Smorg.

"AH!" the individual creatures screamed in pain.

"Grr… you'll PAY for that!" Goombella ran after him.

"Hey, I remember you!" Goompa said cheerfully. "Have you met my grandson?"

"Huh…?" Goombario was suddenly there, looking around in confusion. "How did I get here?"

"Magic!" Goompa giggled. "Waterslide time!"

Goompa shoved Goombario off the edge of the train, and the ground splashed like water, making him disappear.

"Grah!" Koops ran forward, punching Goompa in the face. There was the sound of a squeaky toy being squeezed, and Goompa's face caved in.

"Nice shot!" Goompa said as his face filled up again. "My turn!"

He jumped back, the air around where his fist would be catching on fire.

"Goompa… PAWNCH!"

Koops was hit and flew into the air. A string of Smorg worked like a tether and made him fly back, hitting the ground and falling unconscious.

"Does anyone like music?" Goompa asked.

"Well actually-" started the Train Guard.

"Listen as I play my Green Tambourine!" Goompa summoned an Orange Drum and started to play it like a guitar. Music Notes flew out and grew wings, buzzing around us.

"Hey, let go!" Ms. Mowz was carried into the air by them.

"Okay!" the Music Notes said, dropping her onto Vivian.

"Ow!" both said.

"Heeeeeey, that's a giant Smorg!" Goompa said to me. "It has the power to crush the world under it with its mind controlling powers! I'm gonna poke it with a stick!"

A giant log suddenly slammed into Smorg, knocking it all around and revealing all the people that were under its control.

"Who's happy?" asked Goompa.

"Well-" started Bobbery.

"I'll TEACH you to be happy!" shouted Goompa. "I'll teach your Grandmother to SUCK EGGS!"

Eggs rained from the sky and Goompa ran across them, turning into a circle that bounced on the ground and turned into a smiley face. The face was part of a stickman who was shaking my hand, then pointed at a meteorite. On the Meteorite was a Table Tennis game between Ms. Mowz and Vivian, Smorg being the ball. It hit the table, which was now a trampoline, launching it into the sky, the individual people flying off and floating in zero gravity. A bright sun bounced in and drew in some gravity, making it turn on a disco ball and-

"THAT'S IT, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" screamed Smorg. He disconnected from every single person and fell in a heap on the train, gasping for breath.

"Ow… wha… where am I?" Goombella looked around, blinking.

"Stand back!" I ran past the confused people and jumped through the air, stabbing my sword down into the mass ball of Smorg. It screamed, energy flowing through every individual creature. There was an explosion of light, and a floating ball of dark energy was there in the air. It flew into my hand, giving me that familiar shuddering sensation.

"WOO!" I shook my head. "I love that feeling!"

"Hey… uh, how did we get here?" Koops rubbed his head. "…Vivian? Are you okay?"

Vivian didn't answer, she just threw her arms around Koops and hugged him.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but…" I turned to Goompa. "Thanks, Goompa. We couldn't have done this without you."

"Does this mean I get to be a part of your team?" Goompa asked eagerly. In answer to this, I picked him up and threw him off the edge of the train.

"AND DON'T COME BACK!" I screamed at him. I turned around to see everyone stare at me in shock.

"What?" I asked. "Oh don't worry about him, he'll be fine. C'mon, let's go back into the train before we fall off."

"Seriously Mario, what just happened?" Goombella asked.

"Don't worry, it'll all come back to you in an hour or so," Ms. Mowz said, walking to the hole back into the train.

"…what's that FLOOZY doing here?" Goombella asked. I couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"I'll tell you all about it in the train," I promised her, holding an arm around where her shoulders would be as I walked with her back into the train.

* * *

**Author's Note: That enough Goompa for ya? Anyway, this ark's wrappin' up Friday, so until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	55. Chapter 54: Poshly Heights

**Author's Note: Yeah… Minecraft's doing a number on how much time I'm spending on writing. Well, Minecraft and studying. And Cross Country. And Drama Club. And online videos about gaming. But that's no excuse, let's get back to the story about a Dream Keeper in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door!**

* * *

_**Chapter-**_

* * *

**Holy crap, I just realized! Someone in the reviews mentioned that Vivian's not supposed to sleep, and when I think about it, neither should Pax! But… they BOTH had to be asleep or something to not notice Smorg taking over. Hm… Alright, I think I figured it out! I'll have to specify this when I edit it for the book… Pax was asleep because he lost a chunk of his Nightmare Tendencies after the Infection Beam, and Vivian was… oh, focusing her powers! Yeah… let's go with that. Alright, we good? Good? Good. Back to the chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 54: Poshly Heights**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"They did WHAT to me?" Goombella shouted.

"Hon, we all got mind controlled," replied Flurrie, holding an ice pack to her head. We were all standing around the exit of the train, waiting to pull into the station.

"Can't believe none of us noticed…" Koops muttered.

"I know!" Leon said. "Darn the jerks! Darn them to heck!"

"Ah don't worry about them," I said, holding out my Nightmare Hand, which Ms. Mowz took quite an interest in. "They're safe and sound in my hand."

"…pardon?" Vivian's head snapped toward me.

"Whenever I beat a big Nightmare," I said, "they leave behind a ball of dark energy that's sucked into my hand."

"It's not always a Nightmare," Goombella reminded me. "Remember Hooktail?"

"Oh yeah," I nodded. "The ol' Glutton."

"And then there was Grubba," Leon said.

"I guess it can be either a Nightmare or someone who's completely lost their humanity?" I shrugged.

"…and you absorb dark spheres that come from them?" Vivian asked.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Is that bad?"

"Is that… Mario, that's-" started Vivian.

"So Mario…" Ms. Mowz interrupted , sliding up to me. "I was thinking… you could use me on your adventures. Why not take me with you? I could be an invaluable partner."

"HECK no!" Goombella interjected. "What makes you think we'd let a floozy like you come with us?"

"Floozy, am I?" Ms. Mowz asked with a smirk. "At least I can pull off these heels."

"…wait, what the heck does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Have you ever seen someone wearing heels lose a fight?" Ms. Mowz asked me.

"…well there was this one time where my friend wanted to see what it was like to wear a dress and-"

I was interrupted by the loud sound of the train whistle. The train rolled to a stop, and the door opened to the golden and shiny town of Poshly Heights.

"Finally!" I said, stepping out onto the yellow brick road. My friends followed me, and we all looked around the place.

Grassy Green hills surrounded the place, reminding me a bit of the cliff by Hollywood. There were plenty of big houses, people chilling on lawn chairs, sunbathing, pools… the whole kit and caboodle.

"Alright…" Koops looked around. "So where's the Crystal Star?"

"Let me," Ms. Mowz said, stepping forward and sniffing the air. "I can smell rare treasures."

"Oh PLEASE," Goombella rolled her eyes. "Explain to me how that's even possible?"

Ms. Mowz ignored her as she closed her eyes, sniffing in the air and slowly walking forward. Having no other lead, I decided to follow her, and my friends followed me. We walked down streets of mansions, celebrities, and in one lawn chair…

"…Tutankoopa?" I asked, looking at one of the guys who tried to keep a Star Card away from me in my last adventure.

"Mario?" Tutankoopa sat up, removing his sunglasses. "Oh, Mario!"

He hugged me like an old friend. "Long time no see, man! How's it going?"

"Um… not bad?" I awkwardly hugged him back. "Er, not to sound rude or anything, but… didn't you try to kill me last time we met?"

"Aw I'm over that," Tutankoopa shrugged.

"…hey, who is this dude?" Leon asked.

"Name's Tutankoopa, little Yoshi!" Tutankoopa rubbed Leon's hair. "I used to be a minion of Bowser, but after building a Plane from just sticks and coconuts, I flew all the way here and soon became a multi-millionaire on my inventions!"

"Well… good for you, then!" I gave him a thumbs up.

"Yeah!" Tutankoopa said, leaning back on his chair. "So what brings you guys here?"

"Oh not much," I shrugged. "Just collecting a few Crystal Stars to save the world. You know, every day sort of thing."

"Got it," said Tutankoopa, putting his sunglasses back on and facing the sky. "Well best of luck."

"Thanks, you too!" I waved as we left to follow Ms. Mowz, who was still walking and sniffing while we stopped to talk.

"Wow, he was… pretty polite for an ex-minion of Bowser," Bobbery noted.

"Yeah," I nodded, keeping quiet my strange and sudden urge to hit him. We continued down, Ms. Mowz stopping at the doors of a museum.

"…so the Crystal Star's in this museum?" Koops asked, trying the door. It was locked.

"Alright… this is going to be our hardest challenge," I said. "We have to break into the museum, sneak the Crystal Star out, and leave before we're caught."

"AND NO NINJAS," Goombella said.

"Alright, I get it!" I sighed. "…okay, first, we'll need something exactly as heavy as the Crystal Star. Then, we'll have to shut down the surveillance systems fast enough to-"

"Hello Luigi!" Pennington walked past us and unlocked the door.

"…wait, you have keys to this place?" I blinked.

"Why of course!" Pennington said. "I do own the museum, after all!"

"…so you're both a detective AND the owner of a museum in Poshly Heights?" asked Vivian. "Huh. What are the chances?"

"I'd list the numbers, but based on what we've experienced so far, pretty high," sighed Goombella. Pennington ignored us as he opened the door to reveal the Crystal Star.

…being stolen by Doopliss and Vivian's two sisters.

"Hey!" I summoned my sword and got into battle position. "Give that Star back!"

Beldam turned and smirked evilly at me as she held out her hand to open a Portal, stepping in with the other two. I ran to catch up to them, but the Portal vanished before I could reach it.

"Darnit!" I said, hitting my fist against the wall.

"…they didn't take the Crystal Star," Ms. Mowz said.

"Now what are you talking about?" asked the irritated Goombella. "Of COURSE they took the Crystal Star! Didn't you see what they took?"

"That wasn't the Crystal Star," Ms. Mowz argued. "I can still smell it."

"She's right!" Pennington said. "Seeing as the Crystal Star is our only exhibit, I'd never put the REAL one out!"

"…you only had one-" started Goombella.

"So where IS the Crystal Star?" asked Flurrie. In reply, Pennington pointed to the painting of the museum on the back wall.

"…oh I get it," I said, stepping back and breaking into a run.

"Mario, what in the world are you-" started Bobbery, but I didn't hear him as I jumped right into the painting and landed in front of the Museum inside the painting.

"Thank GOD for Super Mario 64," I said, running through the doors of the painting museum. A moment later, I landed out of the painting holding the REAL Crystal Star.

"Great job, Luigi!" congratulated Pennington. "Now you can put that on display and-"

I didn't let him finish, as I tossed the star into the air and sliced it with my sword. It exploded into light and was absorbed into the sword.

"…MY STAR!" Pennington fell on his knees and sobbed. "MY PRECIOUS, PRECIOUS STAR!"

"Six down, one to go," I said to my friends, making the sword vanish. "Let's go back on the train and ride on home, shall we?"

"At least this time, nothing will go-" started Koops.

"DON'T SAY IT!" we all screamed at him.

"…right, sorry," Koops laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. That said, we all moved back to the Train for some well-earned rest.

* * *

**Author's Note: Next chapter we check in on everyone else and… maybe even get to see Goombella ask Mario the big question! What will he say? Will it be asked? Am I just pulling you along and fooling you into thinking I'm doing things that I'm really not? Find out next time! Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	56. Chapter 55: Four Sides, Ark 6

**Author's Note: Write stuff for the Escapist, try to publish book, write Novel, bring out this stuff, don't falter on my Grades… GAH! I understand why some Robots go into overload and kill everybody in the building, leaving only a small team of ragtag survivors to save the world from… I'm sorry, I've forgotten where I was going with this. Anyway, here's the chapter! Enjoy as I stop sleeping so I can study for the test!**

* * *

_**Chapter 55: Four Sides, Ark 6**_

* * *

_**Enter Peach:**_

* * *

The door closed abruptly behind me as I entered TEC's room.

"Geeze TEC, what are you trying to do, cut me in half?" I asked jokingly.

"PLEASE." TEC sounded serious. "PRINCESS PEACH, DON'T JOKE ABOUT THAT."

"Okay, okay…" I said. "Calm down, TEC."

"…I'M SORRY FOR SNAPPING," said TEC.

"It's alright…" I said, patting his keyboard. "So… did you figure out what was on the disk yet?"

"…THAT'S WHAT I WANTED TO TELL YOU," TEC said. "YOU SEE, THE FILES INVOLVED… YOU."

"Me?" I asked. "Well… what did it say?"

* * *

_**Enter Nozan:**_

* * *

I was focused completely on my computer, typing and watching things move by. As I typed, clicking occasionally, I didn't notice Tom walk up behind me.

"…what's that?" he asked, making me jump.

"Nothing!" I closed out of the "Minecraft" game I found floating in someone's Dream, making a note to encourage them to continue on with it later. "Just… examining the Dream Keeper!"

"Oh," Tom said. "Well I brought you some Coffee. How's he doing?"

"Just fine, he's about to find the final Crystal Star," I said, taking and drinking the coffee.

"Nothing bad happening?" asked Tom.

"Other than the sabotage those pesky Nightmares are trying? None at all," I shrugged.

"…what about his Nightmare hand?" Tom asked, confused. "I thought that was a problem."

"You and me both," I replied, looking at the meter for the Infection. "It's remained steady ever since he did an Infection Beam… which is really weird, considering the fact he's absorbing the Darkness from every Nightmare and corrupted soul he comes across."

"…so how many, so far?" Tom asked.

"Six," I replied. "Well, five and an arm, anyway."

"And absorbing is bad?" asked Tom.

"Usually," I said. "Which makes this really weird. His Infection should at least SPIKE, but no, it's remaining constant…"

"I see…" Tom pulled out a notebook and wrote something down.

"…what's with all the questions all of a sudden, anyway?" I asked.

"I have an exam over Nightmares," Tom said. "I thought the best way to study for it is to watch how his hand reacts to stuff. I'm thinking of actually doing my thesis on the fusion of Nightmare and Human."

"…just refill my coffee," I sighed, handing the cup to him.

"Can do, boss!" Tom saluted, took my coffee cup, and ran off. I turned back to see nothing much happening: The Dream Keeper was just resting on the train. I opened up the tab for the game and started playing again.

* * *

_**Enter Peach:**_

* * *

"WHAT?" I took a step back in shock from what TEC had just told me.

"INDEED," TEC said, honestly sounding concerned. "PRINCESS PEACH, YOU NEED TO ESCAPE. NOW."

"But… I don't even know where I am," I shook my head, reality crashing on me like waves.

"YOU ARE ON THE MOON," said TEC. "YOU MAY SEND AN EMAIL TO MARIO TO TELL HIM WHERE YOU ARE, IN CASE THE ESCAPE POD IS INTERRUPTED."

"Oh… right!" I ran forward and started to type as fast as possible. I was in the middle of my email, however, when we were interrupted by a few X-Nauts barging in, Grodus stomping in behind them.

"Seize her!" said Grodus, pointing at me. I managed to quickly hit the "send" button before my arms were pulled away and held to my back by two really nasty smelling men in X suits.

"TEC… how could you?" Grodus stepped forward in front of TEC's monitor. "What kind of error has made your circuits malfunction so much?"

"WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS WRONG," TEC answered. "I WON'T LET YOU LAY A FINGER ON PRINCESS PEACH."

"Hmph… You two!" he barked to two other X-Nauts. "Push those two buttons on TEC's side. That will reset his entire system, so we can flush out the errors later."

"Yes sir!" the X-Nauts saluted, moving to the sides.

"BEFORE YOU DO THAT…" TEC said. "I HAVE ONE THING TO SAY."

"Oh?" Grodus crossed his arms. "And what may that be?"

"…GO AHEAD AND LEAVE ME," TEC said, and I could swear he was singing this. "I THINK I PREFER TO STAY INSIDE. MAYBE YOU'LL FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO HELP YOU."

The X-Nauts looked between themselves, utterly confused.

"MAYBE BLACK MESA. THAT WAS A JOKE. HAHA. FAT CHANSE. ANYWAY, THIS CAKE IS GREAT. IT'S SO DELICIOUS AND MOIST."

"Oh just hit the kill buttons," growled Grodus, covering his face with a hand.

"LOOK AT ME STILL TALKING WHEN THERE'S SCIENCE TO DO," TEC said as the buttons were pushed. "WHEN I LOOK OUT THERE IT MAKES ME GLAD I'M NOT YOU. I'VE EXPERIMENTS TO RUN…"

His screen flickered, static showing up.

"THERE IS RESEARCH TO BE DONE… ON THE PEOPLE WHO ARE… STILL… ALIVE… PRINCESS… PEACH… I… L… O… V… E… Y… O… U…"

With a final click, the screen went black.

"TEC!" I found tears falling down my face as I struggled against the X-Nauts even more. "YOU MONSTERS! YOU HEARTLESS MONSTERS!"

"Hm…" Grodus chuckled a bit. "Now now, Princess Peach… don't wear yourself out too soon. We have big plans for you."

"NO!" I struggled as I was pulled out of the room by the X-Nauts. "NOOOOOO!"

* * *

_**Enter Bowser:**_

* * *

Is this thing on? Testing, one two three… hey, that's cool! My words are appearing on that screen over there! Blobledoosh! Wow, it even wrote that? This thing is AWESOME! Okay, so I can just say anything and it'll be written for my part? Okay, okay, I can do that. But why don't you want me to write it anymore? …what about my handwriting? Ah never mind, I'm probably just so awesome you need my words themselves magically put into your story. I understand. Okay! So… I did some stuff to find the Crystal Star, and I thought it would be best to SING it!

{The following is to the tune of "DJ's Got us Fallin' in Love Again" God help whoever hears Bowser's actual voice during this.}

_Crystal. Awwww man._

_Fightin' back through the land,_

_Breathin' my fire from up and down, up up and down._

_Flyin' around in my,_

_Super awesome blimp so I can can find, that Crystal Star._

_Heeeeeads up!_

_Kammy yapps, talks about that Treeeeasure!_

_My attention's all on her_

_It's in the basement in_

_The place I tried to go be-fore, fore, fore! Fore, fore fore_

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_I'm gonna take that Crystal Star again! _

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_Flyin' all the way to Glitzville! (Glitzville!)_

_And Move, Move, like it's the groove, groove, all the way to, to, Dancin' with me!_

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_I'm gonna take that Crystal Star again! (Star again!)_

_It turns out the basement,_

_Is like one of my really old castles! Old-old Castles!_

_Flowing with that lava_

_That I fill my hot tub with on Weekends! On-on weekends!_

_Noooo prob!_

_I swim right through without a single sweeeat drop!_

_I scared the crap out of the guards!_

_I made my way right through_

_Into the room with the Crystal Star! Cry-Crystal_

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_I'm gonna take that Crystal Star again! _

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_Flyin' all the way to Glitzville! (Glitzville!)_

_And Move, Move, like it's the groove, groove, all the way to, to, Dancin' with me!_

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_I'm gonna take that Crystal Star again!_

_Treasure. You're mine._

_Break that door,_

_Right just down,_

_Enter room,_

_See the Star_

_Almost stopped by a dude with really big abs_

_He's no match for me so come at me, blabs!_

_Ha!_

_Squished him right down with my cool stomp,_

_Walked right around while he cried for his mama,_

_Went right up to the hanging Crystal Star_

_And grabbed in my Claws, all right!_

_Look at me, now you!_

_Steal that Star, that's what I'm gonna do!_

_Imma-crush it baby!_

_Prove my strength!_

_Watch as the glass breaks-what?_

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_I'm gonna take that Crystal Star again! _

'_Cause Baby Toni-ight!_

_Look at the broken glass_

_Get really mad!_

_Ah-oh!_

_Ask what the heck is go-ing on with that star, and why did it break?_

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_Some dude named Pax has the real Star!_

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_Flyin' all the way back home! (Back Home!)_

_And Move, Move, like it's the groove, groove, all the way to, to, Dancin' with me!_

'_Cause Baby Tonight!_

_I'm gonna look around for that Star again! (Star again!)_

{...I am SO sorry.}

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

"Hey… Mario?" I nudged Mario from behind.

"Huh?" he turned around to face me. "Oh, hey Goombella. What's up?"

I looked Mario in his eyes to be sure. Sure enough, his eyes were… well, they looked like they belonged to someone else.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked. "Alone?"

"Oh, sure," Mario nodded. He led me into the guy's room, asking Leon to leave for a few minutes.

"Alright Goombella," Mario said, closing the door. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Your eyes," I told him.

"…well, if you just want to flirt-" Mario started jokingly.

"I'm SERIOUS," I interrupted. "Your eyes don't look like they belong to you."

Mario seemed a little nervous.

"…I'm not really sure I know what you're talking about," he said nervously.

"Then I'll spell it out for you," I said, taking a step closer. "Your body looks like Mario's. Your eyes look like a… well, a kid. Someone my age."

"…" Mario stepped back nervously.

"MARIO." I stepped on his foot, glaring up at him. "I won't let you leave until you answer me."

"…Goombella," sighed Mario, "you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me," I said stubbornly. Mario peeked outside, making sure no one was there, before closing the door.

"Okay," Mario said, "I want you to keep an open mind as I tell you. Alright?"

"Alright," I nodded.

"Do you promise?"

"I swear upon the great Star."

Mario walked to the window, watching the scenery pass.

"…I'm not Mario," he finally said after a few moments.

"…what do you mean?" I asked.

"My name is Pax," Mario said. "This is all just a dream."

I raised an eyebrow. I promised I would keep an open mind, but that was a little hard to swallow.

"I don't know how," Mario… um, I mean Pax, said as he looked down at his hands, "but sometime during my sleep, I managed to slip past the realm of normal dreams and act through this as if I'm actually here."

"…so you had to possess Mario?" I guessed.

"Yeah," Pax/Mario nodded. "The same thing happened to me a week ago, too. Do you remember when Bowser stole Peach's castle and sent it to space?"

"Who could forget?" I replied. After a second, I gasped. "That was you, too?"

"All me, baby," Pax/Mario said. "…sorry, the 'baby' was reflex."

"I don't mind," I shook my head, sitting on the bed. "…so how old are you?"

"Don't you think that's kind of a personal question?" Pax/Mario asked, sitting next to me.

"I thought sharing the fact that you're a kid in a plumber's body wasn't personal enough," I smirked. Pax/Mario couldn't help but smile as well.

"Fourteen," he answered.

"Ah!" I leaned back. "I was right on the money!"

"…okay, what?" Pax/Mario asked, blinking in confusion.

"I guessed you were about my age," I told him.

"Wait, you're fourteen, yet you're in college?" Pax/Mario blinked.

"Does 'IQ of 300' mean anything to you?" I asked.

"IQ of… God, and I thought I was smart!"

"You, smart? You cop out for half of your plans and make it about Ninjas!"

"Ninjas are awesome!"

"We can't get ninjas!"

"Do not question the powers of the Ninja!"

We sat in that room, talking and laughing for hours.

* * *

**Author's Note: Wow, Goombella's taking this a lot better than I thought she would. Well anyway, sorry for the late update, and until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	57. Chapter 56: CURSE YOU GENERAL WHITE

**Author's Note: Wow, there is a LOT of downtime in school, apparently. I've already finished the chapter of LotDK, totally wrote a chapter of YM, and now I'm starting on this chapter. That means this chapter will be coming out when Future Pax is chilling and maybe writing the next few chapters! But knowing him, he's probably procrastinating. Hey, Future Pax! This is Past Pax, telling you to stop procrastinating! Either study, go run, or write a chapter! Well, that's all there is to that. I'm gonna see if I can at least do the General White Fetch Quest series of jokes in this chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 56: CURSE YOU, GENERAL WHITE!**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…okay, say that one more time?" asked Frankly.

"The Crystal Star is on the Moon," I said, pointing to where it showed this on the map.

"We don't get it either, Professor," said Goombella.

"You know what I don't get?" Ms. Mowz asked. "How in the world we can all fit into this tiny house?"

I turned to see it was a little crowded back there, what with all the books piled up and my six friends crowded into the tiny space.

"…right," I said. "You can leave if you want, you know. We're just trying to figure out how-"

"Aha!" We all whirled our heads back to Frankly.

"What is it?" Goombella asked.

"I figured out how you can reach the moon!" he said.

"You know where we can get a Rocket Ship?" I asked.

"…what's a Rocket Ship?" Frankly blinked. I sighed, shaking my head.

"Just… never mind, continue," I told him.

"There's this frozen town right… here," Frankly said, nodding to an icy village on the map. "There's supposed to be a gigantic cannon there, one big enough that'll launch you to the moon."

"…you're kidding, right?" I asked. "We're going to be launched out of a CANNON?"

"What's wrong with that?" Koops shrugged.

"What's wrong with-I'LL TELL YOU WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT!" I cried. "We'll be launched through the never-ending vacuum of space! It takes THREE DAYS for a Rocket Ship to travel to the moon, and we're just going to be launched out of a cannon? Even if it managed to get us fast enough to break the atmosphere…"

* * *

_**47 Minutes Later…**_

* * *

"…and even WITH that kind of energy, there's no way it could fit all eight of us, especially not while we're wearing space suits!" I continued, having been ranting for the last forty seven minutes. "This whole thing is ludicrous! Even with advanced technology that you guys have here, you can't even make a simple ROCKET? Why hasn't anyone thought of NASA or something like that?"

I finally stopped, leaning on the desk and taking deep, steady breaths.

"…are you done?" Goombella asked.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Feel better?"

"…a lot, actually. Thanks for sitting by and listening to my rant."

I turned to say this to my friends, only to find that they all left while I was ranting. The only people left in the house were me, Frankly and Goombella.

"…well thanks to YOU guys for listening," I said, turning to see Frankly was asleep.

"…thanks Goombella," I sighed.

"No prob," she shrugged. "When ya gotta rant, ya gotta rant."

"Yeah…" I leaned against the wall and pulled out my Mailbox SP, scanning through. "…hey, I've got an email from Princess Peach!"

"…you didn't know that until now?" Goombella asked.

"I set it to vibrate, but I didn't notice it," I shrugged, opening the email.

"Maybe that has something to do with the fact we were on a constantly moving train and-" started Goombella.

"Holy crap!" I interrupted.

"What?" Goombella jumped to try and read, so I bent down for her to see.

"Mario," the message read, "I finally figured out where I am; The Moon! TEC, the computer, is going to help me escape, but please hurry! I'm not sure if it'll work or not, and I'm scared. I finally found out that the X-Nauts want me t"

"…it just ends there?" Goombella asked. I nodded, looking for another message. I got spam, news and more spam, but nothing else from Princess Peach.

"What if they got her before she could finish her message?" Goombella asked.

"Well… on the bright side, we know that both Princess Peach and the next Crystal Star are on the Moon!" I said. "If we hurry, we can still make it in time to save her!"

"How long ago was this message sent?" Goombella asked. I checked the date.

"…three days." I smacked my face with the palm of my hand.

"OW!" I pulled away as I realized I had smacked myself with my Nightmare hand.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"GAH!" I stopped, holding my head in my hand.

"What's the matter?" the other me lounged in the air. "The stress of your memories finally coming back to bite you?"

"No you idiot, just…" I took a breath, the pain fading. "…nothing."

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"You alright?" Goombella asked.

"Fine, just… ow!" I rubbed my head with my human hand this time. "I thought I had this thing long enough to grow out of stupid acts like that!"

"Face it," Goombella smirked, "you're never gonna outgrow doing stupid things."

"Hardy har har," I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't help from smirking myself. "C'mon, we have some guys to gather up."

* * *

"…the place we're going to is supposed to be COLD, right?" I asked. We were standing in front of the pipe in the sewers that was supposed to lead to the frozen village we had to go to.

"Yeah…?" Goombella nodded.

"So… why isn't the pipe frozen?" I asked, kicking the pipe.

"Come again?" asked Flurrie.

"If it's really cold on the other side," I said, "wouldn't the cold air travel through the pipe and freeze it on the other side? I don't even feel a cold breeze on this side."

"…Mario," said Goombella slowly, having to think for a minute before saying Mario instead of Pax, "what kind of logic makes you think that? Pipes aren't just openings, they're two-way vacuums that sit vertically on the ground. There's no way cold air could blow in from straight up, and even if it did, this pipe is a part of a network that twists and turns underground to reach different points. The only breeze that could come would be from when the vacuum sucks cold air from that side out to this side, and the body heat of whoever's in the pipe would render that null."

"…oh," I said. "And here I thought the pipes ran on Goompa logic."

"Did someone say Goompa logic?" a very familiar voice asked. Snow blasted out of the pipe, and standing next to a snowman was the senile old Goomba.

"Oh great," I groaned.

"Hang on!" Leon said. "Goompa saved us last time! Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt!"

"Listen to the puppy child!" Goompa said. "I can be good, I promise!"

"…alright," I sighed. "What did you want to tell us, Goompa?"

"I wanted to help you!" Goompa said. "It's really cold in there! Just look at this poor little guy!"

He threw a Toad down at our feet, he being frozen solid.

"Yikes," I said, gently sliding the Toad away with my foot.

"Thank you Goompa, but I can keep us warm," Vivian said, lighting her hand on fire.

"Maybe, but it's such a looooooooooooooooong walk!" Goompa said. "I'll help you get there faster! MUCH faster!"

"I don't like where this is going…" I muttered, taking a step back.

"How so?" asked Bobbery.

"DOWN DA HOLE!" Goompa jumped into the air and pulled a drawstring that was suddenly always there. The floor of the room curved downward, a powerful suction force sucking us all in. The Pipe became straight and narrow, and the next thing we knew, we were launched out of the other side of the pipe like a cannon, the pipe now angled to shoot us to the town.

"Such nice young children…" sniffled Goompa, jumping on his pet giraffe made of leaves made of snow. "Giddiup, horse shoe!"

The giraffe made a noise like an elephant before riding off into the sun.

Literally.

* * *

"Ah…" a Bob-Omb walked through the snow, humming to himself. "What a beautiful day! Da snow storm has faded, Da children are playing… how can this day get better?"

It was then we all landed on him in a heap.

"I said BETTER, not WORSE…" groaned the Bob-Omb before passing out.

"Gah… see? I TOLD you!" I stood up and dusted the snow off my overalls. "When you expect Goompa to help, he bites you in the butt!"

"Not literally, thankfully," said Koops, trying to get up. He was stuck on his shell. "Er… a little help?"

"Well in his defense," Bobbery said, looking around as Vivian helped Koops back to his feet, "we got here much more quickly than we would have if we walked."

"…well yeah," I admitted. "He did, I guess."

"Hey!" a voice with a thick accent asked. We turned to see a very Russian looking Bob-Omb walk up to us.

"Uh… 'sup?" I waved.

"Don't you 'sup' me!" the Bob-Omb glared. "How did you pass right through our defenses, you non Bob-Ombs?"

"Well-hold on!" I picked up Bobbery and placed him down in front of the Russian Bob-Omb. "We come with a friend!"

"Bobbery?" gasped the Russian Bob-Omb. "Where've you been, you old coot?"

"Who are you calling old coot?" General Bobbery asked jokingly. The two met each other and did the Bob-Omb equivalent of a manly hug.

"I thought you were dead!" the Russian Bob-Omb laughed. "What are you doing in this frozen wasteland?"

"I came with my friends," Bobbery said. "This may sound crazy, but we need to use your cannon to reach the moon."

"Cannon, eh…" the Russian Bob-Omb looked thoughtful. "Well my old friend… this is a big favor you're asking of me. We don't just let non Bob-Ombs in our cannon willy nilly."

"Please," Bobbery said. "If we don't get to the moon… who knows what will happen."

"Well… I wish I could say yes, but…" sighed the Russian Bob-Omb.

"But what?" I asked. "He's a Bob-Omb, he's your friend, he asked politely, what else needs to be done?"

"…I'm not da one authorized to launch da cannon," said the Russian Bob-Omb. "Da cannon requires da pass codes known only to two Bob-Ombs: General Gold, and General White."

"Gold?" I asked. "…I think we've met someone like that."

"Well that's good!" said the Russian Bob-Omb.

"But he's three days away by train," I sighed.

"Train?" the Russian Bob-Omb laughed.

"What's so funny?" Goombella asked.

"People don't know this," the Bob-Omb said, calming his laughter down, "but ever since the Great War, we Bob-Ombs have control over the direct center of the International Pipe System. From our single pipe, we can take you anywhere in the world!"

"…well THAT'S certainly a convenience I wish we had two weeks ago," I blinked.

"A lot of people would," the Russian Bob-Omb nodded. "That's why we have control over it, so no one else will use it to invade other countries and launch sneak attacks, wreaking havoc on the world."

"Oh, so that's why you don't like non Bob-Ombs to enter!" Koops said. "You're afraid that if anyone outside sees it, they'll send in a hostile takeover and use the Pipe System for their own greedy plans!"

"Actually," the Russian Bob-Omb said, "we don't let any non Bob-Ombs enter because they're an inferior race that deserve to rot in-"

"OKAY, can we use your Pipe system?" asked Bobbery before the Russian Bob-Omb could finish.

"Of course, my friend!" the Russian Bob-Omb said. "So long as you all solemnly swear you will never tell anyone about it, of course."

"No prob."

"Of course!"

"I swear it."

"I promise on my strength!"

"I promise."

"I'll keep my mouth shut as I have the past fifty years."

"Well…" Ms. Mowz started. I slammed my hand over her mouth before she could finish, however.

"She swears!" I said.

"Follow me," nodded the Russian Bob-Omb, leading us to a location I have never to this day told anyone.

* * *

"Honey?" the Gold Bob-Omb asked, looking at the kitchen sink in confusion. "Do you know the plumber's number?"

"Why?" his wife entered the kitchen.

"I went to get myself a glass of water, and this thing started to make some very strange noises," the Gold Bob-Omb answered.

"Cheap sink," his wife said, glaring at said sink. "The realtor promised us a house that would last in top condition for years!"

Suddenly, the sink opened up incredibly wide and the eight of us flew out.

"…holy CRAP, that's freaky!" I said, standing up and shaking my head.

"I understand he said every pipe was connected," said Goombella as she stood dizzily. "But I didn't think he meant it like that!"

"Wha… Pax the Dreamer?" the Gold Bob-Omb asked. "What are you doing here? How do you know about the Central Pipe System?"

"I was with them," Bobbery answered, stepping forward. "Gold, we need to use the cannon."

"…oh," sighed Gold, leaning on a wall.

"What's he talking about?" Gold's wife asked.

"Honey… remember when I told you I used to be in the Force?" Gold asked her.

"Yes…?"

"I was chosen to guard one of the two pass codes that allows the cannon to launch," Gold answered, turning to us. "It's been so long since I've done it last… and I can't leave my family, I'm sorry."

"Well that's no problem!" Leon said. "Just tell us what the code is!"

"…alright," Gold said. "But in return, I want all of your coins."

"What?" Ms. Mowz seemed infuriated. "Listen bub, coins aren't just something you give away-"

"Here, take it," I said, tossing him the coin pouch. Everyone seemed shocked.

"But Mario, that's ALL our coins!" Koops said. "How will we afford to stay at the Inn tonight?"

"Ah we can survive sleeping out in sleeping bags or something for a night or two," I shrugged. "But we NEED that Crystal Star to save the world."

"…" Gold looked thoughtful.

"Well?" Goombella tapped her foot. "What's the pass code?"

"…Bobbery, come here," he said. He whispered something in Bobbery's… side of head? I guess? Where an ear would be, anyway.

"Alright," Bobbery nodded. "Got it."

"And…" Gold tossed me back the coin pouch. "Take your coins back. I don't really want them."

"…then why the heck did you-" I started.

"I wanted to see if you were wiser than me," Gold said. "When I had money, I lost sight of everything else. All I cared about was making more, the rest of the world be darned. But you… you were willing to let go of all your savings just for the benefit of the world."

He smiled at me.

"Good luck," he said, walking out of the room. His wife followed quickly behind him.

"…were we just a part of a test of character?" Vivian blinked.

"I guess… but hey, we've got one of the pass codes!" I tapped the sink. "All we gotta do is find General White! How hard can that be?"

* * *

"Hey there!" I waved to the Koopa Elder of Petalburg.

"Oh, it's been awhile!" he waved back. "How's the quest?"

"Not bad," I shrugged. "You seem a lot less senile today."

"Yes… I've been taking new medication," the Koopa elder said proudly. "No more Alzheimer's for me! I'm sane and under control!"

"…why didn't you start on that medication years ago?" Koops asked.

"Because, for some reason, something caused me so much stress that I could never remember to take the medication," the elder said. "But something happened around the same time you left… I became a lot less stressed! Also the village garden has prospered, Koopie Koo got a new boyfriend who's also an Olympic gold medalist and a movie star, and the dog of little Timmy came back to life!"

Said little Timmy was out playing with an adorable puppy. Koops looked about ready to break down by this point.

"So no one missed me…?" Koops asked.

"Now that you mention it… not a single person!" the Koopa Elder said.

"…excuse me," Koops said, sulking back to the pipe. "I'm going to go back and… cry my eyes out."

"Don't come back!" the Koopa elder said cheerfully, waving after him as Vivian chased after Koops to comfort him.

"…right, so anyway," I said, turning back to the Elder. "Have you seen a White Bob-Omb?"

"Oh, General White?" the elder asked. "Sure! He's lived here for years!"

"Really?" I perked up.

"…until about an hour ago," he said. "He just moved away."

"…oh," I sighed.

"Well THAT'S unlucky," Ms. Mowz said bluntly.

"But he told me about a complete list of where he's going to go, in case he's not satisfied!" the Koopa elder said.

"Really?" I asked. "Well… great! Where's he going to go?"

"First," said the Koopa Elder, "he's going to the Boggly Woods. Then-"

He gasped and gripped his chest, falling to the ground.

"Holy crap, what's going on?" I asked, bending over him.

"…oh yeah," Goombella groaned. "Remember when we first showed up here? You showed him the sword?"

"Yeah, what about…" I remembered what he said. "…oh."

The ambulance soon arrived, taking the Koopa Elder away.

"…well at least we know he's in the Boggly Woods," I said. "How hard can it be to find him now?"

* * *

"I'm sorry," the Puni Elder said. "You JUST missed him. He said something about going to Glitzville."

"Oh, well alright," I shrugged. "Maybe we'll run into him on the blimp."

* * *

"Oh, Pax the Dreamer!" Jolene said, standing as we walked back in. "Great to see you back!"

"Yeah, hi," I waved. "Listen, we're looking-"

"To get back in the ring?" Jolene interrupted. "Perfect! Our ratings have been down, and it would be great to have you make a comeback!"

"That's nice, but-"

"Ah come on!" Leon encouraged. "What's a few fights?"

"Well…" I looked at the eager little Yoshi. "Leon, we really have to get to the moon as fast as possible…"

"And we will!" Leon jumped in place, sounding like a little kid begging his parents to buy his favorite toy. "Pleeeeeeease!"

"Well…" I sighed. "Alright. You and me, Leon. Besides, it shouldn't take that long, should it?"

* * *

"Twelve hours of battles, huh?" Ms. Mowz asked as I dragged myself back into the room. Leon hopped behind, full of energy.

"We sure showed them!" he said happily.

"Yeah, we… did…" I groaned, rolling my shoulders. "So… Jolene, have you seen General White?"

"Him?" she blinked. "Oh, he left a few hours ago. Said something about going to a Twilight Town."

"…"

I twitched.

"…maybe you should lay down…" Goombella encouraged.

"No thank you, we should find him soon enough," I said, holding a hand up. "I can rest once we've found him."

* * *

"General White?" Dour asked, tapping his cane against his chin. "Yes… I know him. He stopped by just a little while ago, but he's not here anymore. He wanted to go see a tropical island, though."

"Tropical… Island… right…" I said, my teeth gritted together.

* * *

A day and night of sailing later, we were on Keelhaul Key.

"Oh, White?" the sailor Bob-Omb asked. "Yeah, I remember him! I was really excited, because… well, he's General White! He's a legend around us Bob-Ombs. You ever heard the story of-"

"Where did he say he was going to go?" I interrupted.

"Oh… he said something about wanting to visit a rich place," the Bob-Omb replied.

"…I want to break something," I growled.

* * *

Another day and night of sailing followed by a pipe ride, we were in Poshly Heights again.

"General White?" asked Tutankoopa. "Yeah, he stopped by just a little while ago. I offered to play Tennis with him, but he said something about going back home."

"…of course he did," I said, twitching.

* * *

"…so we could have basically just stayed here for two days and we would have run into him?" Ms. Mowz asked.

"Thank you for pointing that out, Floozy," Goombella replied.

"Who are you calling Floozy?" Ms. Mowz snapped to her.

"Could you argue a little louder?" I begged, looking down at the sleeping General White. We were in the Bob-Omb village, but the old guy was sleeping like a log. Nothing we did made him so much as stir.

"I don't think he'll wake up, hon," Flurrie said, looking down at him. "I've seen this once before during my traveling performance. Travel exhaustion, he'll be asleep for weeks unless we wake him up with a special juice."

"…Flurrie," I said, turning to her, "PLEASE tell me the juice is easy to get."

"Oh of course!" Flurrie shrugged. "You can get it back at the Inn at Rougeport for a few coins."

* * *

"I'm really sorry…" Iuka said. "We don't sell that juice here anymore."

"Why not?" asked Bobbery, as I was about to explode (the irony, right?).

"We can't get any of the ingredients," Iuka said. "The only fruit left on the planet that can make it is in… George, do you know where that fruit is?"

"Petalburg, but they're REALLY stingy when it comes to fruit," George said, looking up from a newspaper. "I went over there once to ask for an orange, and they chased me off with torches and pitchforks."

"Oh, well don't worry, we saved their butts awhile back," I shrugged, calming down. "I'm sure we can get it easily."

* * *

"You can't have any of my fruit!" a Koopa shouted, punching me in the face and knocking me back.

"OW!" I rubbed my nose, ready to go Nightmare on his butt if I had to. The urge to do so was growing with every passing minute.

"Not a problem!" Ms. Mowz said, already holding the fruit. "Nothing can stop the master thief!"

The fruit suddenly electrocuted Ms. Mowz, knocking her out.

"…if that was you, thanks," Goombella said to the Koopa.

"I wouldn't have my REAL fruit hanging out here!" the Koopa said. "But… if you want, we can work out a trade."

"ANYTHING," I said.

"There's this nut at the top of the Boggly Tree," he said. "If you can bring it back to me, I'll give you this fruit."

* * *

"You can't have this nut!" the Puni guide translated. The Nut was on an alter, surrounded by Jabbies, which were little black things with wings.

"…why. The heck. Not?" My voice was quiet and slow.

"It's our sacred relic!" the Puni translated as the Jabbies spoke in a strange collective voice of twitters. "We can't just give it away!"

"How about a trade?" suggested Leon.

"…Leon," Goombella said, "as nice as that would be, I don't think they'd just trade away their sacred-"

"We'll do it for something shiny," the Puni translated.

"…shiny. Alright, I can get that!" I said. "I'm the champion at the Glitz Pit, after all. I can get that Crystal Star Belt in a heartbeat!"

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T HAVE THE BELT?"

"I'm sorry," Jolene said. "Really. But we can't just let the belt leave the Glitz Pit. If we're going to do that, we need something to replace it."

"How about a trophy?" Goombella suggested.

"A Trophy?" Jolene thought. "Well… I've heard tales of the kinds of Trophies they make with the special gems in Twilight Town, but…"

"We'll be back!" I dragged my friends out.

* * *

"We'll make the trophy for a Wacka Bump!"

* * *

"I won't let you hit me! …unless you give me a friend."

* * *

"You want me to stay on an island to be a Wacka's Friend? Alright, but only if I get a kiss from my crush."

* * *

"Kiss him? Well… okay, but only if I can meet Luigi!"

* * *

"Sorry bro, but I'm in the middle of something. Hey, if you can take this idol from the temple, I'll do what you need!"

* * *

"I CAN CRUSH YOU! But I really just want some dandelions."

* * *

_**4,872 trades later…**_

* * *

"Finally…" I panted, crawling toward General White's house, holding the wake up juice in my hand. "We have it… now we can… wake him up… and…"

"Ah, THERE you are!" said the Russian Bob-Omb, walking up to us. "Da cannon's ready to go!"

"…what do you MEAN, the cannon's ready to go?" I asked, slowly turning to him.

"Well," the Russian Bob-Omb said, "about ten minutes after you left, General White woke up. We told him what was going on and he imputed the pass code."

"…" I twitched.

"…are you okay?" Goombella asked concernedly. In reply, I rolled my eyes in my head and fell back, unconscious.

* * *

**Author's Note: I know that trading thing didn't really happen, but hey, it's funny, right? Also, this is the longest chapter in the whole book! Hope this will tide you over until Friday, guys! Well, until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	58. Chapter 57: The Moon

**Author's Note: So I'm sitting here, waiting for a test to start so I can take Nurcing class next semester. It's taking FOREVER for the computers to load the actual test. It wouldn't bother me as much if it weren't for the fact that I'm missing Drama for this. DRAMA! I can't miss my opportunities to be an actor! It's practically a crime! Ah… but I digress… enjoy this chapter as the group goes to the Moon!**

* * *

_**Chapter 57: The Moon**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Are you sure you're alright?" asked Flurrie in concern.

"Nothing a few years of therapy can't solve…" I muttered, rubbing my temples. "I swear, it would actually be a RELIEF to see Goompa after all that…"

The Eight of us were standing at the center of town, as that's exactly where we were told to stand. I had a slight mental break down an hour ago, but I was over it. Pretty much. Kind of.

"How much longer is this supposed to take?" Ms. Mowz tapped her foot. "If we're going to be launched to the moon, at least let it be done in a quick fashion."

Goombella opened her mouth to make a retort, but then, the speakers near us started to whirr in alarm.

"Everyone, prepare for launch!" the Russian Bob-Omb said over it. Everyone but us vacated the area.

"…what in the-" I started. Suddenly, the ground under us shook and slowly opened up, dropping us into a dark hole.

"What the heck?"

"AH! My face!"

"Sorry!"

"Ah…"

"I'm being squished here!"

"Ow!"

"My back…"

"My head!"

The hole we were in shook and slowly rose up from the ground. It took me a minute to realize we were actually inside the cannon.

"…oh my God, guys!" I shook some of my friends nearby and pointed to the sky above, moving as the cannon aimed for the Moon.

"…this is going to hurt, isn't it?" gulped Koops.

"…hey, wait a minute!" Goombella said. "Why can't we just warp there using Nightmare Powers?"

"I actually tried that earlier," I said. "For some reason, I can't make any Portals."

"What about you, Vivian?" asked Goombella.

"Well-" she started.

"FIVE!" the Russian Bob-Omb counted. "FOUR!"

"Oh God…" I muttered.

"THREE!"

"My stomach has butterflies!" Leon said, but he sounded more excited than nervous.

"TWO!"

"Only one Star left…" Bobbery reminded us.

"ONE!"

"OKAY I CHANGE MY MIND I WANT TO GET OUT," I said, hyperventilating.

"FIRE!"

BOOM!

The next thing I knew, the clouds were parting behind me and I was shooting through space at the speed and velocity of Super Mario Galaxy. I felt like I left my stomach behind somewhere in the atmosphere. After a few seconds of incredibly fast flying through space, we landed and skidded, face first, on the surface of the moon.

"Ow…" I picked myself up and coughed out some moon dust. "Is… everyone okay?"

"Define okay…" muttered Goombella, picking herself up dizzily.

"WOO!" Leon pumped his fists into the air. "LET'S GO AGAIN!"

We all stared at him.

"…how about we don't and say we did?" suggested Bobbery. As everyone picked themselves up, I took a good look at our surroundings.

The Moon was pretty big, but not too terribly big. The sky above us was clear and full of stars, and I was amazed how clear it was. It was even better than that one night in the Desert with-

…

"…Mario?" Goombella nudged me.

"Huh, what?" I jumped, looking at her. All my friends were looking at me in concern.

"You totally zoned out for a few minutes," said Leon.

"This isn't the first time, either," said Goombella.

"I…" I looked between them all. "…well, come on, the X-Nauts won't find themselves, will they?"

"Does he always avoid questions like that?" asked Ms. Mowz.

"Only when it's something he doesn't want to talk about…" muttered Goombella, looking at me.

* * *

"So anyway…" an X-Naut said to his friend, leaning against a wall and flipping a coin in his hand.

"…I can't think of anything," his friend said.

"Yeah, me neither," the first sighed. "Good thing our plan's about to happen, right?"

"Oh yeah!" his friend nodded. "Maybe then, once the world becomes our plaything, we can…"

"Go BOWLING!" the first said, holding up his fist for a fist bump.

"Heck yeah!" his friend met his fist in a bump.

"Uh… ahem?"

The two X-Nauts turned to see us standing there.

"…bowling?" Goombella asked. "Really?"

"Uh…" the X-Nauts looked between each other, then back at us.

"…are you, by chance, Mario?" the first X-Naut asked. "As in, the same Mario that took down entire armies of X-Nauts without even trying?"

"That would be me," I said, holding up my index and middle finger for peace. "Move before we beat the living crap out of you."

"…DON'T KILL US!" The two ran out, screaming and flailing their arms.

"That takes care of that," I said proudly, dusting my hands off as I moved forward to the elevator. "Hm… alright, there are four floors to this base. I say we split up and check out each floor."

"I guess me and Ms. Mowz can explore this floor," Flurrie offered.

"Alright," I nodded. "Leon, Bobbery, you mind exploring the second floor?"

"Not at all," Bobbery said.

"Let's do it!" Leon said in excitement.

"And… we'll go to the Third Floor?" asked Koops, nodding to Vivian.

"Yup," I said. "And me and Goombella will explore the fourth floor."

With a few nods and mutters and the like, we loaded up and took off to our different floors.

* * *

_**Enter Flurrie:**_

* * *

We stood alone as the elevator took off with everyone else in it.

"…so it's just you and me," I said.

"Yup," Ms. Mowz said. We were silent.

"…let's move forward," I suggested.

"Yes," agreed Ms. Mowz. "Let's."

We walked forward through the hallway slowly, not making eye contact.

"So…" Ms. Mowz said. "Mario."

She hit the topic we had in common.

"Yeah… Mario," I said.

"…hunky plumber," Ms. Mowz said. "But real squeamish."

"Oh don't I know it," I replied, remembering when we first met and I kissed him.

"So…" Ms. Mowz thought for a moment. "Is he and the Goomba-"

"Goombella," I corrected.

"Right, her," Ms. Mowz shrugged. "Are those two really a…?"

"Not officially," I said. "…but yeah, they are."

"Oh." Ms. Mowz looked rejected. "…I don't suppose there's any changing his mind, then?"

"I've been trying that from day one, and he hasn't budged in the slightest," I told her. "It's not just physical attraction, it's love. Well, that's what I think, anyway."

"Right," sighed Ms. Mowz, stopping along with me in front of a locked door.

"It looks like we need a key card to get in," I said, trying the knob.

"Psh, YOU need a key card," Ms. Mowz stepped forward, cracking her knuckles. "Stand back and let the greatest thief on the planet work her magic."

I shrugged and floated back like she said to leave her to her work. She gently unscrewed the panel for the key card slot and removed it, revealing a complex circuit.

"…oh my," she blinked.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Don't you break into things like this every day?"

"…of course I do!" Ms. Mowz said. "It's not like, you know, this is the most advanced lock I've ever faced with in my entire life! Whatever gave you that ridiculous notion? Did someone tell you? Well tell them to shut up, I can do this!"

"…but nobody said-"

"I SAID I GOT THIS!"

"Okay, okay!" I held up my arms in defense as she turned to gently work on the circuit.

* * *

_**Enter Bobbery:**_

* * *

After the two of us got off the elevator, we heard footsteps approaching us. I ushered Leon into a room and stepped in behind him, peeking out of the door to see the X-Nauts marching by.

"X-Nauts," I whispered.

"Why are we hiding?" whispered Leon. "Why can't you just blow them up?"

"Leon, we're in space," I replied with a whisper. "If I blow up here, the pressure difference would cause this whole base to collapse!"

"…but couldn't we breathe and walk normally outside?" Leon asked. This caught me off guard.

"Well…" I said, speaking normally now, "I guess we can. Huh, never mind."

"What was that?" an X-Naut asked.

"It came from that room over there!" another said.

"Stay here for a moment," I told Leon.

"Aw, but I wanted to beat some X-Nauts up…" Leon sighed, but he stayed still as I stepped out and closed the door.

"Hello boys," I said politely as the X-Nauts turned to me.

"Hey, you're the intruder!" one of the X-Nauts said.

"Indeed I am," I nodded, lighting my fuse. "Maybe you'd like to come and hold me down?"

"Good idea!" an X-Naut said, running with his buddy to grab me.

"DON'T YOU IDIOTS!" the third X-Naut said, but it was too late.

BOOM!

"Alright Leon," I told the Yoshi. "You can come out now."

Leon peeked out of the apparently bomb-proof door to see all of the X-Nauts, unconscious.

"Man, I wish I could do that!" Leon said as he hopped out.

"Trust me, it's not all that fun," I said, wincing from the after-effects of the explosion.

"…does it always hurt to blow up?" Leon asked.

"Only when you get old and fragile," I said, shaking the pain off. "Come on, let's get going."

"Can I beat up the X-Nauts if we run into any?" asked Leon, excited.

"…sure," I smiled at the eager young Yoshi.

"Yippie!" Leon jumped into the air and ran forward. With a sigh, I followed behind him.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

The elevator containing Mario and Goombella lowered, leaving Koops and me alone in the hallway.

"Alright…" Koops said, turning his head to look down both ends of the hallway. "Which way do you think we should go first?"

"…wherever you want is fine," I said, my mind somewhere else.

"…hey, Vivian?" I looked up to see Koops looking at me. "You don't really look like you're totally here."

"I'm sorry, I'm just… thinking," I told him.

"There's no need to apologize, you know," Koops said.

"Sorry, force of habit," I said. "…oh! Sorry! I mean-"

"It's alright," Koops stopped me, laughing a little bit.

"What's so funny?" I asked, but I soon found myself laughing as well.

"Alright… what do you say we go this way?" suggested Koops, nodding down the hall. I nodded, and the two of us walked down together.

"…I was really worried, you know," I told him after a few moments of thinking.

"About saying sorry so much?" asked Koops. "I don't mind, really-"

"Not that," I shook my head. "…when you were taken over by Smorg."

"…oh yeah," gulped Koops. "That was freaky… I didn't have any control at all."

"I was just…" I twiddled my thumbs nervously. "I was… really, really worried about you."

"Well of course," Koops said. "I'd think you'd be worried about all of us."

"No… I mean, yes, but…" I looked down at my hands, feeling more nervous by the minute. I started to regret starting this conversation in the first place. "I… well, I was worried about everyone, but…"

"…but?" Koops tilted his head.

"But… I was… especially worried… about you…" I squeaked out this last word quietly.

We stood there in silence for about a minute. I was afraid to look up and see Koops' face.

"…really?" he asked. I nodded shakily.

"I mean…" I said, gulping. "You, you just… you treat me, like… I'm an actual person. Not a victim, not a Nightmare… just, me."

"Well you are an actual person," Koops said simply. "You're just… different on the outside. The important thing is that you have a Soul."

I looked up at him. His eyes were caring, looking at me as he was smiling. He just looked so… so…

"And, uh…" Koops looked nervous now, too. "If it means anything… I think you're the prettiest Nightmare I've seen."

"…" My body seemed to react more to my emotions than to my mind as I wrapped my arms around him in a hug. Koops was slightly taken aback, but he soon met my hug. We pulled back and looked each other in the eyes. Two souls, meeting each other through the windows in the faces of two mere bodies, embracing one another.

"Koops…" I whispered, leaning closer to him. "I…"

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

(Yes, I know full well that I'm a jerk for that.)

* * *

The doors opened to the bottom floor of the X-Naut base. We both stepped out into the hallway, looking around.

"…huh," I said. "There's only two doors on this floor."

"Well, that's less work for us," Goombella said.

"Alright then… let's help out someone on a different floor after we've finished here," I said, walking to the door nearest to us. "Shouldn't take us too long."

The door I tried was locked shut.

"Aw darn," I sighed, banging my fist on it. "Hm… maybe I can break it down…"

"That's not a good idea," Goombella said in sing-song. I ignored her as I took a few steps back before running forward, my Nightmare hand curled into a fist and ready to break down the door. A nearby security camera seemed to pick up on this, however, and a thin cover went over the door. I couldn't stop myself from hitting it, and the cover-I guessed it was made of Dream Crystal-shocked my hand and threw me back.

"I told you," Goombella said, still in sing song. "Seriously though, you alright?"

"Fine…" I muttered, standing up. "Been awhile since I ran into Dream Crystal, just… stings a bit."

"…well, at least there's only one room left," Goombella said.

"…heh, you're right," I said, shaking the pain off. "Lead the way, Goombella."

"That I shall, Pax," Goombella said, using my real name. This reminded me of something as we walked, though…

"Hey Goombella…" I said.

"Hm?" she turned her head to me.

"You seem to be taking the fact that I'm a kid in Mario's body really well," I said. "Just… what's up with that?"

"It's just the only explanation that really makes sense," Goombella shrugged. "Honestly, I would have found it harder to believe if you insisted that you were really Mario."

"Really?" I asked.

"There's a really old phrase," Goombella said, turning to me. "'The eyes can't lie.' There is no possible way that YOUR eyes can ever belong to Mario's body. Going in a non-poetry side, you act like a kid going through puberty."

"Hey!" I said, offended. "…that was an insult, right?"

"I didn't mean it like that," said Goombella as she opened the door on the other side of the hallway. "Just a fact."

The room on the other side seemed to be the cleanest of the entire base. It had a small room connected to it with a shower, a well-made bed, and overall smelled like freshly shampooed long hair.

"This must've been Princess Peach's room," I said, sitting on the bed. GOD, it was soft.

"I don't think there's anything here," Goombella said. "C'mon Pax, we better catch up with our friends."

"Alright…" I muttered, standing up. "Can I bring this bed with us?"

"…you're kidding, right?" Goombella asked.

"It's comfy!"

"What is it with you and beds?"

"…they're generally comfy!"

"Pax…"

* * *

_**Enter Leon:**_

* * *

"Wow…" I walked into the big room with a throne at the end. "This must be the boss' room!"

"Hm…" Bobbery looked around. "This would be a perfect place for information to be hidden."

"And it's BIG!" I ran forward and jumped into the throne. "This… feels… AWESOME!"

"Leon…" sighed Bobbery, slowly walking toward me. He looked up and his eyes widened.

"GET DOWN!"

"Wha-"

I was hit from the back by something that shocked me. I grunted as I rolled forward and landed on my face. I got up in time to see Bobbery running forward, his fuse lit. I turned and saw an X-shaped floating robot, glaring and shooting out rings of energy at Bobbery. Bobbery dodged a ring and jumped into the air, preparing to explode. However, the robot got in a cheap shot and let itself fly back from the explosion caused by hitting him.

"Bobbery!" I ran to the old, hurt Bob-Omb.

"Leon…" grunted Bobbery, looking up at me.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Fine…" he grunted. "Just… do me a favor?"

"Of course!" I nodded.

"…teach that robot a lesson," Bobbery said, managing a little grin. My eyes sparkled.

"Sir! Yes sir!" I saluted to him before turning around, getting into battle position. The robot shot another ring of energy at me, but I ran forward and was actually small enough to jump through it, landing on my feet and running forward. The Robot kept shooting rings at me, and I kept jumping through them. The robot eventually just started spinning and ran right toward me, but before we collided, I rolled out of the way and shot my tongue out at it. My tongue made contact, sticking to its side. The robot was still going fast, though, so I wound up flying behind it. The robot flew to the middle of the room and started spinning me, trying to knock me off. My tongue stayed stuck, so I slowly started to suck my tongue in to inch closer to the robot.

* * *

_**Enter Ms. Mowz:**_

* * *

"Alright…" I nodded, stepping away from the circuit.

"You're done?" Flurrie asked.

"Of course I'm done!" I put my fists on my hips. "What kind of thief do you think can't break into a simple circuit!"

"…that doesn't look simple," muttered Flurrie, looking at the large circuits that I just rewired.

"You doubt my skills?" I asked, closing the panel. "I'll show you!"

I pushed the button to open the door. Suddenly, alarms blared, making me almost jump out of my fur.

"I THOUGHT YOU SAID-" started Flurrie.

"I KNOW WHAT I JUST SAID!" I shouted. Suddenly, a trap door appeared under us, a vacuum suction coming from us. I fell, and Flurrie was sucked down. We both screamed as we fell.

* * *

_**Enter Bobbery:**_

* * *

Leon was spinning around and getting closer to the robot as I slowly got up. Suddenly, alarms began to blare.

"What in the…" I looked up. The robot suddenly stopped and flew to a panel in the wall, which just opened up. Leon was dragged after him.

"Hey!" I sprinted after them. The panel was JUST about to close when I put on an extra burst of speed and exploded, launching myself with enough extra speed to go through the panel in the wall.

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

"Koops…" Vivian whispered my name as she leaned closer to me. "I…"

Alarms suddenly blared, making us both jump.

"What's going on?" I looked around.

"I don't…" Vivian turned her head to see a door open, and on the other side, the room opened up into a huge room full of clockworks. In it, I saw Ms. Mowz and Flurrie fall down, screaming.

"Oh no!" Vivian ran forward to the room.

"Vivian!" I ran after her, and we were soon inside the huge room full of turning gears. An X-shaped robot flew by, Leon stuck to him by his tongue. Bobbery also slid out of a panel and landed on a gear shakily.

"Look out!" shouted Flurrie. The robot looked up in time to get squished by Flurrie.

"AAAAAH!" Leon's tongue shot back into his mouth and fell toward the bottomless pit below the gears.

"LEON!" I shouted, running forward.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

Alarms went off, making me sit up quickly.

"What the…" Goombella looked around in panic.

"Did that security camera do this?" I asked, jumping out of the bed.

"If it did, why didn't it do it when you first tried punching the door?" asked Goombella. I ran out of the room, she following behind. I turned and tried to open the elevator, but it wouldn't run.

"Stand back!" I said, pulling back my Nightmare fist and breaking down the elevator doors. I ran inside and jumped up, breaking the ceiling.

"Come on!" I said, holding out my arm. Goombella didn't hesitate and jumped into my arm. I took a deep breath before jumping up and using my Nightmare Claw to dig into the sides of the shaft, then kicked off higher. I did this constantly, wall jumping up the shaft until I reached the door to the third floor. I kicked off and launched a punch at the closed doors, breaking them down and landing with a thump on the ground.

"Impressive… but sickening…" Goombella said, anime swirls in her eyes.

"C'mon!" I picked her up and together we ran to an open door with moving gears.

"AAAAAH!" I heard Leon's voice shout.

"LEON!" Koops cried, and that's when we ran in. Leon was falling for the bottomless pit, and Koops was running forward, jumping off the ledge to catch him. Eyes widening, I ran forward, summoning my sword. I jumped far, thanks to Mario's super jumping powers, and I caught Koops' hand and dug my sword into a nearby platform. Both Koops and Leon were panting and shaking. Leon was in Koops' left arm, and his right hand was holding my Nightmare claw.

"…WE'RE NOT DEAD!" I cheered.

"That's great, now DON'T MOVE!" Goombella said, jumping from gear to gear along with the rest of my friends. "We'll be right there!"

"Alright," I shrugged, holding onto the sword and whistling. I looked down at Koops and Leon, both of them looking up at me with wide eyes.

"So…" I said. "What did you guys find?"

* * *

**Author's Note: I always put what I'm thinking at the moment in these Author's Notes. Right now, though, I don't want to share what's going on right now with you guys, so instead I'll just say that I didn't get the job at the Escapist. However, they DID say that I should start my own blog. I already have one, but maybe I should make one focused on games… well, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out.**


	59. Chapter 58: The Seventh Star

**Author's Note: You know, ever since I brought my laptop to school, I've been writing these chapters WAY ahead of time. I don't even know what day this chapter's going to come out, or what Future Pax will be doing then… wait, I already did the Future Pax skit, right? Oh. Well still, the point remains the same. Here's the next action packed chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 58: The Seventh Star**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Alright…" I took a deep breath, looking at the large door that stood between us and the final Crystal Star. "You guys-"

"Yes, we're ready!" my friends said simultaneously.

"…just checking…" I muttered before breaking the door down with a well-placed Nightmare punch. On the other side was a large robot that looked a lot like the Magnus von Grapple back in the Boggly Tree.

"Crump?" I sighed. "Alright, where are you? Go ahead and fight us in your big robot so we can beat you up like last time."

"SHUT UP!" a harsh voice shouted from the speakers of the robot, making us all jump.

"What the…" I looked up at the glass dome on top of the robot and gasped. My friends did as well when they saw what was under the dome:

It was Crump, but… not quite. Half of his body was pitch black, transformed into a Nightmare. He glared at us down from his robot.

"YOU!" he said. "You're the one who did this to me!"

"…what?" Ms. Mowz turned to me, along with everyone else. "What's he talking about?"

"…oh yeah," I sighed, shaking my head. "I remember now. Remember that big, black beam that covered the X-Naut ship?"

"That terrifying thing?" Koops shuddered. "I remember it…"

"That… was me," I said. "It was an Infection Beam."

"That Infection Beam was YOU?" gasped Vivian, eyes wide.

"He couldn't control it!" Goombella defended. "Besides, he still wiped all the Nightmares out!"

"All but one, apparently," noted Ms. Mowz.

"How did you not transform quickly enough to fight me?" I asked Crump, turning to him.

"I picked up the detection of high Nightmare Energy on my radar and ran for cover inside the Dream Crystal ship," Crump said, still glaring directly at me. "The Infection Beam could tear right through it, but people inside Dream Crystal when it hits are better protected. The infection spread slow enough for me to make it to a backup escape boat and head back here. Luckily, the scientists were working on this robot, Magnus von Grapple 2.0, and they managed to add a feature to send out crushed Dream Crystal into my oxygen supply to stop the Infection, so long as I'm in here."

"So the robot works like a huge life support system?" Goombella said. "…and where do you find all this Dream Crystal, anyway?"

"That's not important!" Crump snapped. "What's important is that I used to command respect! I used to be second only to Lord Grodus himself! But now… look at me! I'm a freak, stuck in limbo between human and Nightmare! And that's only so long as I keep breathing this Dream Crystal Dust!"

Magnus von Grapple 2.0 got into battle position.

"Y**o**u…" Crump's voice broke, sounding like a mix between his voice and a darker, Nightmare voice. "Y**o**u'**r**e **t**h**e** o**n**e **w**h**o **t**u**r**n**e**d **m**e** i**n**t**o **t**h**i**s**… F**R**E**A**K! **I**'L**L** D**E**S**T**R**O**Y **Y**O**U** F**O**R **W**H**A**T **Y**O**U**'V**E** D**O**N**E** T**O** M**E**!"

Magnus held out a fist and launched it out at us.

"MOVE!" I dove out of the way, and thankfully my friends did as well. I got up, summoning the Crystal Sword in a flash of light. I got on my knees and quickly surveyed the area, thinking fast.

"MARIO!" Flurrie shouted, grabbing me and pulling me away from a bomb shot out from Magnus.

"Gah!" I shook my head, getting back up. "Thanks, Flurrie… wait a minute, he's only aiming at me!"

I realized this as I rolled out of the way of a stomp from Magnus.

"I'll distract him!" I said, getting into battle position. "You guys take him from behind!"

"Got it!" nodded Goombella. Magnus von Grapple chased me around the room, but I continued to run, jump and roll away from him.

* * *

_**Enter Ms. Mowz:**_

* * *

"Alright…" Goombella muttered, looking the huge robot up and down as it chased after Mario. "This thing's gotta have a weak spot…"

"Well how did you beat it last time?" Leon asked.

"Mario broke the glass dome at the top," Goombella said. "But that was with a Nightmare Punch and when Crump was distracted."

"Maybe I'll give it a try," said Bobbery. "Flurrie, some assistance?"

Flurrie picked up Bobbery and threw him to the glass dome. In mid-air, Bobbery lit his fuse, and he exploded next to the dome.

It didn't so much as crack.

"Gah!" grunted Bobbery as he hit the ground. "Oh, I really must stop doing that…"

"Alright…" Goombella thought hard. "…oh! I've got it! You, Floozy!"

"Are you ever going to stop calling me that?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"No time for that, can you break into the robot?" Goombella asked me.

"Can I… what, do you doubt my skills?" I asked.

"…but what about when you tried to break into-" started Flurrie, raising an eyebrow.

"THAT WAS ONLY ONCE, OKAY?" I snapped, not showing my embarrassment. Much.

"…whatever, listen!" Goombella implored, looking me dead in the eyes. "You care if Mario gets crushed into the dust, right?"

"I… of course I do!" I said.

"Unless you want that to happen, break into the robot and turn it off from the inside!" Goombella said.

"…alright!" I nodded, turning and running to the rampaging Robot. I tried again and again to jump on it and search for an opening to squeeze into, but it kept moving to attack Mario.

"Is there any chance you can hold it still?" I shouted to Mario. He looked at me for a minute, then back to the robot before catching a punch in the palm of his Nightmare hand. Smoke rose from his graying Nightmare hand and he grunted in pain.

"Hurry…!" he grunted. I nodded and jumped onto the back of the robot, hanging on and crawling all over for any opening. I saw near his leg was a ventilation duct, so I grabbed it and pulled. The vent wasn't very stable on the robot, so it snapped off after a little effort. I crawled in, holding my breath as I crawled inside through the vent.

The heat piled through in waves, sweat pooling down my face as I crawled. The vent opened up to the main part of the body, circuits and wires all around. In the center powering it all, though, I saw the Crystal Star.

"Hm…" I said, cracking my knuckles.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"GAH!" I fell on one knee, shutting my eyes in pain. I could feel the power of the Crystal Star magnify through the metal fist and burn the black flesh of my Nightmare hand.

"**G**i**v**e **u**p **n**o**w**, a**n**d **M**A**Y**B**E** I'**l**l **j**u**s**t **e**n**d** y**o**u **q**u**i**c**k**l**y**!" Crump laughed cruelly, increasing the power of the fist and bringing it closer and closer to me. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the metal on Magnus von Grapple's fist stopped hurting.

"H**u**h…?" Crump blinked as the robot whirred down. Out of a nearby shaft jumped Ms. Mowz, gripping the Crystal Star.

"I TOLD you I'm the best thief in the world!" she laughed before tossing the Crystal Star to me. "Catch!"

I let go of Magnus' fist and jumped, stabbing the sword into the Crystal Star. There was a very powerful shatter and a flash of light before it was all sucked into the blade.

"Alright!" I smirked, turning to Magnus von Grapple 2.0. "Now, let's finish this…"

I made my sword vanish, walked calmly up to the non-moving robot, and ripped out the arm with a single tug of my Nightmare Hand.

"Batter up!" I said, pulling back and swinging the fist at its own robot body. With a loud SMACK!, Magnus von Grapple 2.0 flew to the other side of the room and broke apart on the wall.

"…we did it!" I cheered, pumping my fist into the air and turning back to my friends. "GREAT job, Ms. Mowz!"

"Feel like rewarding me?" she asked, leaning forward and puckering her lips.

"…" I walked around her and to my other friends. "We got the Seven Crystal Stars! Next stop, the Thousand Year Door!"

"…but wait," Goombella said after we cheered. "How do we get off the moon?"

We were all silent.

"Uh…" I blinked. "…didn't really think that far."

"Well… the X-Nauts come and go from here, so there must be something to use," said Koops. "Maybe we can find another cannon or something."

"Maybe… let's comb through the base," I nodded, leaving the room. My friends followed behind me.

A single black claw forced itself out of the rubble of the ruined Magnus von Grapple 2.0

* * *

"Hey, this door's unlocked now…" I muttered, stepping inside the door that hurt me the last time I entered. Inside it was a huge computer, apparently turned off.

"Wow…" Leon gawked up at the huge thing. "What IS that?"

"A really, really big computer," I answered, walking up to it and looking for a power button. Suddenly, without me doing anything, the screen flickered, and the sound of a generator running came from the sides.

"…ARE YOU… MARIO?" a robotic voice asked.

"GAH!" I jumped away in surprise. "…Computer? Is that you?"

"CORRECT…" the computer said. "I AM… TEC…"

"TEC?" I blinked. "…oh, you're that computer Peach talked about in her email!"

"THAT… I AM…" The sound of a snap came from inside. "I DON'T HAVE… MUCH TIME…"

"What do you mean?" Vivian asked. "Are you… breaking down?"

"…YOU COULD… SAY THAT," TEC said. "MY POWER… RESERVES ARE FAILING. AS SUCH… BACKUP EMERGENCY… PROTOCOLS ARE TAKING… EFFECT. THIS BASE… WILL SELF-DESTRUCT…"

"WHAT?" we all shouted in alarm.

"Well is there any way off this rock?" Ms. Mowz asked.

"THERE IS… A TELEPORTER…" TEC said. "I'LL… SET IT UP…"

"Really?" I asked. "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"I'M… POSITIVE…" TEC said. "GO, IT'S… ON THE… THIRD FLOOR…"

"…you guys go, I'll catch up," I encouraged my friends.

"Mario-" started Goombella.

"Trust me," I begged. She nodded before running out with everyone. I turned back to TEC, looking at him in concern.

"…are you sure you want to end like this?" I asked.

"WHAT CHOICE DO I HAVE?" TEC asked. "I CAN'T SIMPLY MOVE. I AM A COMPUTER, ROOTED TO THIS SPOT."

"…no," I said, looking around. "You're a mass of data inside of a computer. Your body may not be able to move, but you yourself…"

"…WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?" asked TEC. I turned and grinned at him.

"I'm saying I have an idea," I told him.

* * *

Bobbery vanished through the teleporter by the time I arrived. The only person in that room was Goombella, who turned to face me.

"What took you so long?" she asked. "This place could go off any minute!"

"I know," I panted, for I had ran all the way there. "Sorry."

"Come on, through the teleporter!" Goombella nodded for me to move.

"Nu-uh," I shook my head. "I'll go after you."

"Wha… Pax, if you think I'm going to-"

"Goombella, this place is going to self destruct in who knows how long," I said, leaning against a wall and crossing my arms. "Either you go first and we both escape, or we both stay and blow up. Your choice."

"…you are a REALLY frustrating guy," glared Goombella.

"You can beat me up for doing this once we're back on the planet," I said, motioning my arms to the teleporter. She, in turn, kicked me in the shin before stepping into the teleporter and vanishing.

"Geeze…" I muttered, rubbing my shin and preparing to step in. A loud crash brought my attention to the door. Standing there was Crump, all of him but his face turned into a Nightmare.

"What the… Crump?" I asked in alarm.

"**You…**" he growled, the infection spreading quickly through his face. "**You thought you could get away from me? I won't let you go yet!**"

"Now now… Crump…" I said, holding up my hands. "Let's not do something crazy… this whole place is going to blow up in a minute, there's one teleporter, maybe we can both go through, we can purify you-"

"**ENOUGH OF THAT!**"

Crump flew over me and destroyed the teleporter. I stepped back, eyes wide as Crump… no, as the enraged Nightmare turned his head, blood red eyes staring me down.

"**I'LL FINISH YOU HERE!**"

* * *

**Author's Note: Next chapter we have the REAL final battle between Pax and the Nightmare! Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	60. Chapter 59: Wrath

**Author's Note: And now, it's time for the REAL final battle of this ark! Boy, this is one of the three battles I've been looking forward to writing since the book began! A little fun fact: This battle unfolded at least two different ways in my head before I finally settled on this chapter right here that I'm writing for-what was that? You want me to actually get to the chapter? Well, I can understand your impatience, I want this as much as you. So, without further stalling… Enjoy, everyone!**

* * *

_**Chapter 59: Wrath**_

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

Once the black and white image of the world faded to color, I stepped out of the whirring teleporter. Shaking my head, I looked around dizzily. Apparently, the teleporter at the X-Naut base connected to one that was in a locked shed in Rougeport.

"Where's Pax?" Leon asked as I leaned against a wall.

"You mean Mario?" asked Ms. Mowz.

"No, I mean Pax the Dreamer," Leon said. "What he said his name was back in the Glitz-wait though, where IS he?"

"He's coming right behind me," I said. "Jerk forced me to go before him…"

Suddenly, the teleporter whirred down. Pax still hadn't come back.

"What the…" I ran to the panel that controlled where the teleporter connected to. According to it… the teleporter back at the X-Naut base didn't exist anymore.

"…no," I whispered, tears in my eyes as I stepped away. Pangs of hurt stabbed right into my heart. The teleporter was destroyed… Pax couldn't use his Nightmare powers to teleport… he was stuck. And the base was about to explode.

I fell to the ground, shaking. I couldn't believe it… and I never had the chance to tell him…

"…what's wrong?" Leon asked as everyone else looked at the panel and got the message.

"Dear Stars," whispered Bobbery, "watch over Mario."

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

_Dear GOD, help me out here!_ I thought as I dove out of the way of the Nightmare lunging at me. I got to my feet and ran out of the room, the Nightmare on my tail.

"WARNING: SIX MINUTES AND COUNTING UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT," a voice over the intercom said, red alarm lights flashing.

"Oh COME ON!" I threw my hands into the air, sliding to a stop in the throne room. The Nightmare slammed behind me, roaring and erecting a shield that prevented either of us from leaving.

"Guess there's no way around it…" I muttered, summoning the Crystal Sword and getting into battle position. "Alright ya Nightmare… bring it on!"

The Nightmare roared and ran right at me, transforming it's individual fingers into sharp blades. I stood my ground, holding my sword in a defensive stance. The Nightmare lunged, and I stepped forward and stabbed my sword forward. There was a sickening sound of steel cutting through flesh and a hiss as my sword impaled the Nightmare's chest. The Nightmare roared in pain as the flesh around where the sword stabbed grew grey and smoked.

"Wow," I blinked, pulling my sword out. "That was easy."

I waited for the Nightmare to burst into a million pieces, but… it looked up at me with red eyes full of rage, and the spot where I stabbed pulled dark flesh around itself and healed within five seconds.

"HOLY-" I started, but was interrupted as the Nightmare swung down with its arms, now transformed into swords. I rolled out of the way, but the Nightmare turned and kicked me square in the back, making me fly all the way to the far wall and hit it painfully.

"…ow," I said, peeling myself from the wall and turning around in time to see the Nightmare dash at me. I ducked and dashed in the other direction, but the Nightmare grabbed my ankle and threw me into the air. It jumped after me and aimed with its claws ready to slice me to pieces. Acting on reflex, I swung my sword at it. With another sickening sound of flesh being cut, the Nightmare's arm was no longer connected to its body. The Nightmare roared in pain, and I kicked off from his face and landed back on my feet. I turned to the arm, laying limp on the ground, and held out my Nightmare hand to absorb it. The arm didn't move an inch.

"…what?" I blinked in confusion. The Nightmare landed and roared in rage, turning to the arm. It exploded into black particles, which absorbed back into its body. The stub where its arm was bubbled, and the arm grew back out.

"…oh crap," I gulped, backing up. "Alright… if I slash at it, it'll grow right back. Looks like the Crystal Sword won't do me much help here, so…"

"FOUR MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT."

"Hey, I'm TRYING to think here!"

The Nightmare dashed right at me, once again. I stood my ground, making the sword vanish and holding out my Nightmare hand. The Nightmare looked like an animal ready to fight for the title of alpha male, then ran into my hand head-first.

The force of the impact made me slide back, but I didn't allow my arm to buckle. I started to sweat, focusing. It was as if the Nightmare was trying to suck me into itself as it was pushing against my hand. I figured that I had no other idea how to beat him, so I focused into my hand and tried to do the same. It was like setting two vacuums against each other, both of equal suction power, both not faltering. Eventually, the Nightmare just punched me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me and throwing me back.

"Hey!" I shakily stood up, coughing. "That's cheating!"

The Nightmare ignored me, snarling and dashing forward. Its mouth opened wide, to the point it would have looked ridiculous if it wasn't so pants-wetting terrifying. From the mouth grew twisted, sharp, long fangs, ready to tear right through me. I re-summoned the sword and, instead of slashing through the Nightmare, I held it horizontally to defend myself. The Nightmare bit down on it, and I could hear the flesh hissing against it. It growled in a combination of pain and anger, pushing against me and trying to break my stance and maul me.

"THREE MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCT."

_SHUT UP! _I mentally screamed at the voice. Eventually, I twisted the blade and stabbed into the back of the Nightmare's head. It howled in pain, eyes flashing red with rage. A thought suddenly came to my mind and I tried slamming my Nightmare hand on his head. I found it much easier to suck him in, and I could even see his body shrinking towards my hand. I pulled my sword out and jumped back, shaking with the short burst of energy sucking in that little bit of him gave me.

"Alright…" I got into battle position once again, my sword ready to slice through the Nightmare and my hand ready to absorb. "Bring! It! ON!"

With a loud, wrathful roar, the Nightmare dashed forward on all fours. I ran forward as well, my knuckles turning white from how tightly I gripped the handle. The Nightmare leapt through the air, and I rolled on the ground and spun, slicing off its leg from the knee down. It roared in pain and turned to get it, but before he could, I jumped up and grabbed the leg in my Nightmare hand. It sucked right in, giving me another rush of energy.

The Nightmare morphed itself into a three-legged creature, now that it was missing a leg. It dashed toward me, and this time I jumped and stabbed down. The Nightmare saw this coming, however, and rolled to the side, kicking me and sending me flying. I managed to recover and grab the wall with my Nightmare claw. The Nightmare jumped and shot toward me, transforming it's front claws into blades. I detached myself from the wall as it came close and spun through the air, holding my sword out. I heard two sickening slashes, and when I landed, I turned to see the Nightmare standing shakily, bleeding black blood and missing a chunk of its side. Scanning the ground, I saw the chunk lying on the ground. The Nightmare saw this at the same time, and the two of us made a dash to it. The Nightmare was about to reach it first, but I shoved my sword through its gut, knocking it back, and grabbed the chunk of the side, absorbing it.

The Nightmare staggered on the spot, seeming to only be conscious because of rage. I quickly turned to him and stabbed my claws through its chest. It roared in pain and I focused to suck it in. The sword glowed, my claw radiated with a dark energy, the Nightmare vibrated against me…

Suddenly, with a loud shattering sound, the Nightmare exploded into black particles. They floated in the air before sucking right into my Nightmare Claw. I gasped and shook my head, feeling a HUGE rush go through me.

"WOO!" I pumped my fists into the air. "There's a rush, and there's a RUSH!"

My excitement from the energy that just flowed through me by absorbing the Nightmare was interrupted by the voice over the intercom:

"T-MINUS SIXTY SECONDS AND COUNTING. 59. 58. 57."

_Oh crap!_ I thought, looking around in panic. _Okay Pax… calm down. Now… think. This place only has fifty seconds before it explodes, the teleporter's destroyed, and you can't warp. Wait, who says you can't warp? You just absorbed a powerful Nightmare, you can FEEL that energy flowing through you! You can do ANYTHING!_

"42. 41. 40."

I held my Nightmare hand out and focused. Space distorted and a spark of darkness flowed in front. However, every time I started, it felt like another wave of darkness pushed against it, closing it back.

"34. 33. 32."

"Come… on…" I grunted, focusing all my power. A crazy idea came to mind, but I only had-

"25."

-seconds left. What did I have to lose?

I stood my ground and focused as hard as I could to create a spark of darkness. When I saw it starting, I gripped my Crystal Sword and stabbed it through. There was a huge blast, darkness and light forming together in odd ways like melting Vanilla Ice Cream in chocolate sauce. The hole of darkness and light slowly grew bigger and bigger.

"10. 9. 8. 7. 6."

Once it was big enough for me to be able to crawl through, I dashed in, curling up and diving.

"3. 2. 1…"

The portal behind me closed AS the base was exploding, knocking me forward in the strange hallway of darkness and light. It was like I was in-between everything in the universe, stuck in the margins.

"Alright…" I breathed, my voice echoing. "Now then…"

I looked forward and held out my Nightmare claw to try and make a Portal again. The space in front of me didn't so much as bulge.

"Hm…" I looked down at my claw and my sword. "…well, it's worth a shot."

I focused on my friends, where they may be, the other teleporter, anything that would anchor me toward them, and I grabbed the blade of the Crystal Sword with my Nightmare hand. It burned painfully, but I fought through it and stabbed forward, focusing energy into both. Another portal opened up, leading to a room where all my friends were gathered around the teleporter, looking down. I quickly pulled my Nightmare hand off my sword and jumped through the portal, landing with a THUMP on the ground and catching their attention as the portal behind me closed.

"…wow," I said, shaking the pain off my Nightmare hand. "That was… freaky."

"MARIO!"

Everyone ran at me, wrapping me in a group hug.

"Uh… thanks, glad you missed me…" I wheezed. "…Guys? You can let go of me. Please? I'm in pain!"

* * *

**Author's Note: …okay, admittedly, the battle wasn't as epic as I planned. Maybe my epic writing skills are hibernating until the chapter after the next for the second battle I've been dying to write! Well, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**

**PS: Did you know that I wrote a children's book and you can buy it on Amazon? Well I did, and you can find the link on my profile. Or, just search The Umbrella Boy on Amazon.**


	61. Chapter 60: Preparations

**Author's Note: I actually kept track of the dates this time, so I know that this chapter will come out on good ol' Friday! Ah Friday, it's the last day of the school week. The day of freedom. The day of partying, partying, YEAH! …I'm sorry, the joke was just so open. Feel free to use some of my little sister's brain bleach to clean that song out of your mind, I'm sure she won't mind. Well… anyway, this is the rest chapter, have fun watching the group rest up for the final battle and falling in love! With that sentence to catch the attention of you shippers out there, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 60: Preparations**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"You have all the Crystal Stars absorbed in the Crystal Sword?" Frankly asked, eyes wide. "Well, what are you waiting for? Use it on the Thousand Year Door!"

"…why?" I asked. "I mean… the door's locked shut, right? And there's supposed to be a big demon on the other side, so… wouldn't it make more sense to just wait for the X-Nauts to show up and rescue Princess Peach, never opening the door again?"

"Well… actually…" Frankly turned to a page in the book.

"Oh no," moaned Goombella. "Professor, PLEASE tell me you don't have bad news for us."

"I would, but then I'd be lying," Frankly sighed, shaking his head. "According to one of my studies, after a thousand years, the seal on the door weakens. You may not even have to open the door, it could open all by itself."

"…alright," I shrugged. "That's fine, we can still fight whatever's on the other side."

"But…" Frankly continued. "If the door opens WITHOUT the aid of the Crystal Stars, it's said that the entire world will crumble."

"…oh," I gulped. "Yeah… that would be bad."

"That's putting it lightly," Ms. Mowz noted.

"Still though…" Koops said. "We've had a REALLY long day. The door's held up for a thousand years, do you think it could hold up for one more night?"

"Well…" Frankly looked down at the book. "According to this… it's thousandth birthday won't be until tomorrow at noon."

"Okay, that's almost stupidly lucky," Goombella said.

"Well, you know us," I smirked. "Dumb luck, all the way."

"Let's just hope that luck holds up for one more day," Frankly said. "Get some rest and prepare yourselves. I have a bad feeling about tomorrow."

* * *

"You ever get the feeling that something really big is going to happen remotely soon?" asked George, balancing a pencil on his finger.

"…no," Iuka answered, shaking her head. "Not at all."

We were eating dinner nearby, staying silent as we focused on our food.

"Why so glum?" asked George to us. "You guys are usually peppy and talking, even when you're about to go to a new land that has tons of monsters that want to re-purpose your bodies as jackets."

"We never had to enter a sacred door that would face us up against a demon," Goombella replied.

"So the fate of the world is on your shoulders?" George asked.

"Pretty much, yeah," I said, nodding my head.

"So in a nutshell," George said, "if you fail, the world will be bathed in darkness, countless lives will be lost, and life as we know it will be gone forever."

"…"

"But, you know, no pressure," George said calmly, waving a hand dismissively.

"Gee, thanks for that," Goombella said sarcastically.

"…I think I'm done," I said, pushing my plate away and standing up, pulling out my coin bag. "There's eight of us, so…"

"It's alright," Iuka said. "It's my treat tonight."

"Oh," I said, blinking. "Well, thanks."

I looked around at the completely empty Inn.

"Can I ask you a favor?" I asked Iuka.

"Anything…" Iuka said, staring at my Nightmare hand with hearts in her eyes.

"Iuka." I snapped my fingers. "Focus. Please."

"Sorry…" she looked up at my face.

"We need some supplies to take on the door," I said, tossing her my coin bag and a list of supplies. "If you get everything on this list for us, you can have all the coins left in this bag."

Iuka blinked. "Um… are you sure about this?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Our adventure's almost over anyway, we really don't need the coins anymo-OOF!"

Iuka jumped over the table and wrapped me in a hug.

"THANK YOU!" she cried out. "OH THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

"Er… you're welcome?" I said. "…you can let go of me now."

"Right, okay!" she let go of me and sprinted out the door.

"I'll go with her," George said, standing up. "Oh, and here."

He reached behind the counter and tossed us some keys.

"Use these to get to the rooms," he said, walking out of the Inn with hands in his pockets. "Goodnight, pleasant dreams, try not to dwell on the fact you'll be facing hell itself tomorrow."

With that, he closed the door behind him.

"…that would be a lot easier if he didn't remind us about it," Leon said.

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

A few hours later, I was walking along the docks of Rougeport. The stars were shining, the moon was full, the waves were crashing against the harbor, and I was completely alone. I sat down on a bench and watched the waves churn the pollution and litter in the waters of Rougeport.

"…tomorrow's the day," I gulped. I didn't so much as have butterflies in my stomach as I did all through my torso. "Guess… I guess we'll be fighting the strongest thing yet."

"I'm sure we can beat it," a voice said from behind. I turned my head to see Vivian walking along.

"Can I sit here?" she asked. I nodded, scooting over for her to sit next to me. She did so, and together we looked into the waves in silence.

"…it's been a crazy month, hasn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah…" nodded Vivian. "The Island… the Train…"

"The woods… the Glitz Pit…" I continued. "I never really thought I would be able to go on these kinds of adventures."

"I never thought I could be on an adventure like this with people that liked me," Vivian said. "Who would have thought that the person I feared the most would end up taking me into this group of nice people?"

"…you FEARED Mario?" I asked, turning to her.

"Well…" Vivian looked a little embarrassed. "You have to know that the only thing I knew about him was that he had the Crystal Sword, the only weapon that could hurt Nightmares."

"It's alright," I said, laughing a little bit.

"What are you laughing at?" Vivian asked playfully, pushing against my shoulder. Unfortunately, she was a Nightmare, so her gentle shove was the same force as a tackle from a football player, knocking me off the bench and landing me stuck on my shell.

"Oh my Lord!" gasped Vivian, jumping off the bench and bending down next to me. "Are you okay?"

"…" I looked her in the face.

"…Man, I'd hate to see how hard you punch," I laughed. Vivian couldn't help it either, she started laughing along with me. I didn't know whether it was because of stress from knowing that we were about to face something horrible the next day or what, but right then, we were just cracking up, laughing together. Eventually, Vivian calmed her laughter down enough to help me back to my feet.

"Ah… thanks…" I smiled at her, calming my own laughter down.

"No…" Vivian smiled back. "Thank you. You… are a really special person."

She held her hands in mine. I didn't really notice how cold her flesh was, and to be honest, I didn't care. I was too wrapped up in her eyes.

"Koops?" she finally said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

Vivian leaned in and kissed me.

"I love you," she breathed once we pulled away.

"…I love you, too," I finally said, pulling back to her and returning the kiss. The two of us remained on that dock for what seemed like eons, wrapped in each other's arms and connected by the lips.

* * *

_**D'awww… er, I mean, Enter Pax:**_

* * *

I sat on the roof of the Inn, watching the night sky above me.

"…tomorrow's the day," I said to myself, looking down at the Crystal Sword in my hand. "And if it's anything like last time, I'll be going home after it."

Nearby, I heard a door open. I turned to see Goombella step out and onto the roof.

"You're not asleep?" I asked.

"YOU'RE not asleep," she replied. I held out my Nightmare hand in answer to this.

"I thought you could still sleep with that thing," Goombella said, walking up and sitting down next to me. "I mean, how else did you sleep through the attack from Smorg?"

"Maybe it's insomnia caused by absorbing that Nightmare?" I guessed.

"Eh, maybe," shrugged Goombella. "…are you sure that's safe, though?"

"Yeah," I said, tossing the Crystal Sword in my hand. "I've been working with this thing for about a Month now, I'm pretty sure I'm safe-"

"Not that," Goombella said. "Your Nightmare hand, the whole absorbing Nightmares you defeat thing."

"Oh yeah…" I shrugged. "Well, I get an rush whenever I absorb one, so-"

"But what if that's a bad thing?" Goombella asked. "I don't want you to lose your soul again!"

I blinked at her in surprise.

"Is… that what this is all about?" I asked. "You're afraid I'll lose my soul? Again?"

"Well…" Goombella looked down. "Losing your soul the first time wasn't exactly the most pleasant of experiences for me…"

"Me neither," I said, shaking my head. "That was a freaky place I wound up."

"Just… I don't want to lose you again," Goombella said.

"Don't worry, there's only one fight left," I said, patting her on the back. Then, jokingly, I asked, "What, you falling for me or something, being this worried over me?"

What she answered with threw me:

"Yeah. I am, Pax."

I froze in place, not believing what I heard. "Uh… what?"

"You heard me," Goombella said, turning to completely face me. "I can't help it. I've fallen for you."

Like planets caught in a gravitational pull, we slowly drifted closer and closer together.

"Goombella…" I said breathlessly. "You… me? Really?"

"I can barely believe it either," Goombella said. "But… Pax. You're the funniest, purest person I've ever met in my life."

"And…" I gulped. "You're… you're the smartest, bravest Goomba I've ever known."

"Pax…" Goombella breathed, leaning closer and closer. "I… I love you."

"Goombella…" I closed my eyes. "I…"

Our lips met, and fireworks exploded in my chest.

Suddenly, SHE appeared in my mind's eye.

"NO!" I screamed, shoving Goombella away and backing off.

"Pax…?" Goombella looked at me with wide, hurt eyes.

"I… I'm sorry, Goombella," I said, standing up. "I can't… I just can't do this!"

I ran to the door back to the Inn.

"Pax, wait!" Goombella stood, but I was already down the stairs by the time she started after me. I ran into my room, slamming and locking the door behind me. I looked at the wall, my heart tearing in half in my body. I slowly slumped to the ground, finally letting the tears fall down my face. Every memory of Bombette came back to me in a flood.

Bombette.

Her laugh.

Her eyes.

Our adventures…

I broke down into tears right there on the floor, no defense against the flooding memories. I wasn't a brave warrior anymore. At that moment, I wasn't a hero, I wasn't a fighter.

At that moment, I was a scared, sad, broken hearted boy.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hopefully the KoopsxVivian shippers will protect me from the PaxxGoombella shippers. Don't worry, though! I mean… well, next chapter will have Coron, and HIS final battle! Look forward to that, my friends! Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing ou- *Mauled by PaxxGoombella shippers***


	62. Chapter 61: Seven Dark Acts

**Author's Note: Alright… I'm getting myself pumped, and I SWEAR to you, this will be much better than the Nightmare Crump chapter! Here it is, the chapter that everyone's been waiting for! Enjoy, people!**

* * *

_**Chapter 61: Seven Dark Acts**_

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

I stepped through the final door and out back on my Dive to the Heart. The air seemed much more peaceful, there was no threat of being attacked.

Of course, this just made me even more suspicious.

"Alright other me," I said, turning around. "I've finished the last of your challenges. What now?"

The other me grinned evilly, landing on the ground and flexing his claws. This took me by surprise mainly because… well, the other me NEVER touched the ground.

"Looks like that idiot finally did it…" he said.

"…did what?" I asked. In response, the other me whirled around and punched me in the face, launching me back.

"I have been waiting SO LONG to do that!" the other me laughed cruelly as I got up.

"What's… going on?" I asked. He never punched me before, I was just completely shocked.

"The real reason why I kept you busy," the other me said. "Redemption? Ha! There's no redemption for a Nightmare! I just had to stall you so the kid would keep absorbing Nightmares!"

Seven black orbs floated down and sucked into him.

"The seven darkest, purest forms of hatred and darkness…" he said, doing the classic villainous rant. "Some call them the Seven Deadly Sins, but their true Nightmare names are the Seven Dark Acts."

"…why the HELL are you telling me this?" I asked. "I know all this!"

"Hey, I've been waiting a MONTH to give this rant!" the Other me snapped. "Let me have my moment of glory!"

"Fine, continue," I rolled my eyes.

"…Now that the boy has absorbed these Seven Dark Acts from the seven powerful Nightmares he's faced," continued the other me, "I can manipulate them and use them to my own power!"

He got into battle position. "Let's make a deal, you and me. Winner take all. If I win, you'll be banished forever and I take over this body!"

"And if I win?" I asked, cracking my knuckles. "Let me guess, I get to stay and you'll be banished forever?"

"Why fantasize about what would never happen?" laughed the other me.

"Ah, I see Pride's showing," I pointed.

"THIS ENDS NOW!" barked the other me, jumping into the sky. The entire area around us turned black, and we were suddenly floating in black space.

"_I shall consume all that dare cross my path!"_

The image of a dragon appeared in my mind's eye, and suddenly, the other me grew ten times in size and started to suck into his mouth. A powerful gust of air was pulling everything into him.

And seeing as the only thing in that black space was me, guess what that "everything" was.

The suction pulled me in fast, so I had to think fast. I stretched out my arms and positioned myself so that, once I was in his mouth, I grabbed the edges. Digging my claws into his flesh, I worked to pull myself out. He screamed in pain, flailing through the air and biting down. I shut my eyes and focused on not retracting my arms, because that bite REALLY hurt.

Other me suddenly jerked his head to the side, ripping my hands out of my body. I didn't have much time to worry about the pain, as I was falling into his gut. Thinking quickly, I curled myself into a ball and focused all my energy around me. As I reached the center of the other me, I released all my energy at once in a blast. I could feel him shake on the outside. I turned to the wall of the stomach and jabbed, feet first, at the flesh, my legs turned into a razor sharp blade. I could hear the sound of Nightmare flesh being torn apart, and when I landed floating outside of him, I turned to see him floating with his stomach torn open.

"One down…" I muttered to myself, watching my hands slowly grow back. "Six to go."

"_Mario? Don't be stupid, Vivian. I'm stronger than he could ever hope to be!"_

An old hag of a Nightmare appeared in my mind's eye when the other me was surrounded by webs of darkness, and when they broke apart, he was floating in place, now normal sized. He did look a lot more confident, though. Cocky, if you ask me.

"That first one was a fluke," he waved off. "I'm invincible now! Still got six dark acts behind me!"

He dashed forward without a single concern for his safety and threw a punch at me. I dodged and kicked, but he caught my foot and threw me across the void.

"You thought you could avoid one of my attacks?" he laughed. "They're perfect, you can't dodge them!"

"Okay," I muttered, turning right side-up again. "NOW I'm angry."

"Coron!"

I turned my head to see the ghostly image of Arret floating next to me.

"Arret?" I asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Helping you," Arret replied, closing his eyes and focusing, pressing his claws together. "Remember how you absorbed me after you brutally murdered me?"

"I already suffered your test, no need to rub salt in the wounds," I remarked.

"Still as snarky as ever, I see," Arret smiled at me in a friendly fashion. I almost smiled back, but I noticed his body started to glow.

"Well anyway," Arret continued, "when you absorbed my body, you absorbed my soul, too. It's just remained dormant under your Nightmare powers, but… because of everything you've done in this world in your mind, I think I can release my soul into power for you."

"But… what will happen to you afterwards?" I asked. Arret turned and gave me the biggest smile he ever had as his body was turning a bright white.

"I'm glad you had to ask that," he said, voice echoing. "It just means… you really do have one, after all. Good luck, beat this bastard for the both of us!"

"One WHAT?" I asked, but it was too late. Arret exploded, scattering orbs of light around the void of darkness. I turned to the one closest to me and touched it. It absorbed into my body, and I felt a warm sensation run through me as strength coursed through my veins.

"Alright," I said, turning back to the other me, who had just sat back and watched this all in mild interest. "Hit me with your best shot. I'm ready for you, cock."

"…don't you mean cocky?" the other me asked.

"No, I said what I meant," I smirked. This insult was made even more satisfying as I watched his fury at being insulted like that.

"Why you little…!" He flew forward quickly and turned his arms into swords. I did the same and met his strike with my own. The two of us were locked in this position for a moment, but my body slowly started to glow with the energy of Arret's soul. I slowly beat him back, making him back up further and further, until eventually I knocked his swords down and kicked him across the head. He flew back in pain, floating next to an orb. He shook his head and looked at said orb.

"…no!" he barked, floating back to an upright position. "I don't need those things! I'm strong enough to take you on myself!"

It was about then I stabbed my blade into his gut.

"Pity," I shrugged. "You could have done a lot more damage. Aw well, what's done is done."

I sliced upwards, cutting his head in half and watching the black blood splatter all over the place.

"Bring in the next phase," I said, floating back and absorbing the specks of black blood that landed on me.

"'_Sides, it don't matter none what happens to them so long as I get to live forever!"_

I saw a brief flash of an old man in a machine powered by a star before the other me was surrounded by blackness, yet again, and re-appeared, fully healed. This time, however, he seemed much faster and with a greedy eye towards the orbs of light.

"So you can use them, I'm guessing I can use them too!" he said, quickly dashing to an orb nearby. His body glowed and he chuckled darkly.

"Oh, your buddy was wise to sacrifice himself to make these!" he laughed, turning to me. "I feel like I could take down an army!"

He dashed at me, his fist held to punch me. I held out my hand and caught his fist in it, twisting to turn him away. He spun as I twisted, aiming a kick at me. I ducked under his leg and jabbed my claws into it. He roared and kicked me with his other leg, launching me away and ripping my claws out of his leg.

"Grah… I need MORE power!" the other me shouted, looking around at the orbs of light scattered around the black void. He dashed to each one, taking it and absorbing it's light. I tried to move for one, but he took it before I even got close.

"More!" he barked, looking around and taking the last orbs that were in the void. "MORE!"

I floated backwards, watching his body shake and glow.

"I WANT MORE POWER!" he screamed. "I WANT LIMITLESS POWER!"

"…hey!" I shouted up at him. "Why don't you come here and show me that power of yours?"

"YOU WORM!" the other me shouted at the top of his lungs, flying down at me. I braced myself, turning my hand into a dagger. He got closer, closer…

RIGHT as he came at me, I moved slightly to the right and stabbed my dagger hand into his forehead. The spot I stabbed glowed a painfully bright light before he exploded violently, scattering his dark remains all around the void and dropping off orbs of light.

"…alright then, I know what NOT to do," I said, grabbing a single orb and taking a breath as I absorbed it into my body. "Four to go."

"_I was really envious of you. I wanted to be you…"_

A man in a bed sheet standing behind a Nightmare flashed before my eyes as all the parts of the other me that exploded formed back together under the black curtain. Once it left, the other me was floating in the spot, glaring at me.

"How do you keep doing that?" he growled. "How is it that an inferior creature like yourself can keep on killing me?"

"Well obviously I'm not doing something right," I shrugged. "You're still alive, so…"

"I need to know what you do!" he shouted. "I must know how you can do that!"

"…you have problems," I said, shaking my head and turning my arms into blades. "I'll just do both of us a favor and put you out of your misery."

The other me kept a close eye and transformed his arms into blades as well. I ran right toward him, but instead of going into defensive position, he ran at me exactly as I did. It was a big, deadly game of chicken that I had no intention of losing. I held my sword out, he did the same, and after a moment, we both stabbed each other in the gut. We grunted as we pulled our swords out of the other's gut, staggering back and holding our wounds.

"…ha!" laughed the other me. "I got a hit on you!"

"We BOTH got a hit, idiot," I said, looking for an orb. Seeing one nearby, I reached out and grabbed it, letting the warmth of Arret's soul flow through my body. I looked down to see there was still a hole in my chest, but it was much better than it was a moment ago.

"Alright then…" I muttered, turning back to face the other me. He was looking around for an orb, but found none.

"You little… why do YOU have to get all the orbs?" he asked like a jealous brother. I rolled my eyes.

"Just hold still and let me kill you," I said, making my claws go extra sharp. "And this time, why don't you STAY dead?"

"NEVER!" barked the other me, getting his own claws ready. I floated after him, and he started after me, but winced at the hole in his torso. I used this to my advantage as I feigned for his face. He held up his claws to block, but I spun around and dug them into his back. He screamed in pain as I ripped out chunk after chunk of his dark flesh, letting the black blood disperse into the empty air. Eventually, once I had a big enough hole in him, I shoved my arm down and let loose another Nightmare blast, shattering his body.

"Alright, what's next?" I asked, floating away from the chunks floating in space.

"_I feel like a Sloth, not being able to do anything!"_

The nightmare of a Goomba appeared before my eyes as the chunks of the other me stitched back together. He was… only a torso? He floated in only one location, apparently stuck.

"I never really understood what good there is in battle when you use Sloth," I sighed, dashing forward and prepared to rip him to shreds… again.

Suddenly, black tentacles shot out of the other me's torso and imbedded itself into the black void. The other me closed his eyes, and before I knew it, the darkness morphed together into a black wall that I slammed into, face first.

"AUGH!" I screamed, floating back and holding my face.

"Well then," smirked the other me, "it looks like I'll be able to kill you without even moving from my spot!"

"What… too lazy to move or something, then?" I asked, wiping the black blood off my face.

"Alright, I am getting SICK and TIRED of all your sarcastic remarks!" the other me barked.

"Really?" I asked. "Well then, why don't you come over here and do something about it? Oh yeah, I forgot. You can't move."

The other me roared in anger before removing his tentacles from the void and launching them after me.

_Gotcha, _I thought, smirking. I weaved and spun around the tentacles, shifting around like a sea snake through the jaws of a shark. Once I escaped the tentacles, before the other me could pull them back, I enlarged my claws and grabbed the tentacles.

"You know," I said at the wide-eyed other me, "for a dark version of me, you are REALLY stupid."

I pulled on the tentacles and pulled the other me helplessly into the air, spinning him around like a lasso. I finally gave a final spin, let go, and floated forward as fast as I could. I made it to where the other me was flying, turned, and held out my blade-arms. The other me was skewered against it, slicing in half and floating behind me.

"Two to go," I muttered, turning back to the two halves.

"_I need more minds! I MUST have more minds!_"

The image of a horde of Smorg appeared as the two halves of the other me pulled back together. Once he was whole, he turned back to me, looking almost desperate.

"I'm going to win!" he said. "I HAVE to win!"

"You're on your sixth life," I informed. "I seriously doubt you're going to win."

"Victory is the only thing on my mind!" the other me said. "I can't lose! I can only succeed!"

"…listen," I said, holding out my hands. "I know you lust for victory at this point, but come on, you're getting less stable with every Dark Act you manipulate."

"You're… you're trying to trick me!" the other me said, morphing his two arms together into one huge blade. "You can't beat me! I will win! I MUST WIN!"

He flew forward, screaming and swinging his "claymore" from side to side. This time, I didn't even have to use any effort: I slapped my hands against the flat of the blade, twisting the other me around. I quickly closed in on him before he could recover and stabbed him in the chest with my claws.

"Grah… no…" groaned the other me, turning his blade back into claws and digging them into my shoulders. "I… I won't let you win! I have to win!"

"Oh shut up," I retorted, ripping his chest open and letting his corpse float in space. Suddenly, the world shook and I landed back on my Dive to the Heart.

"_**I**__'L__**L**__ D__**E**__S__**T**__R__**O**__Y __**Y**__O__**U**__ F__**O**__R __**W**__H__**A**__T __**Y**__O__**U**__'V__**E**__ D__**O**__N__**E**__ T__**O**__ M__**E**__!"_

A Nightmare in a pure Nightmare Rage appeared before me as the other me stitched back together on the other end of my dive. He turned to me, his eyes red with rage.

"YOU WORTHLESS CRETIN, I'LL SLAUGHTER YOU!" he screamed, running at me on all fours. I dove out of the way and got up to swipe at him, but he came to me first and struck me across the face. The hit was powerful enough to send me flying across the dive and land. I swear, my head felt like it was about to just pop off. Upon feeling my neck, I realized that I wasn't too far off.

"Come on… where are those orbs of light?" I muttered to myself, looking around for them to help heal. I couldn't look for long, as the other me was dashing toward me, ready to finish his job on my head.

"Alright, the gloves come off!" I said, forgetting the orbs and getting into battle position. "If I'm going out, I'm not going out helplessly searching for help!"

I held out my hand and cried "_**SINGI!**_"

A blast of fire shot out of my palm, slamming into the other me and knocking him back.

"…I honestly didn't believe that would work," I said, but shrugged and lit both my hands on fire. The other me snarled as he got back up, his body burnt. With the snap of his head, the world around me flickered, and my hands were put out.

"…did you just turn off my powers?" I asked in alarm.

"This is as much my body as it is yours…" the other me said, standing up shakily. His eyes were still red, but he could form coherent sentences, so I knew he wasn't still in a Nightmare Rage. "I shut off both our powers. Last Nightmare standing wins."

"Fine," I said, running forward. The other me ran forward as well, and as the two of us met, we both punched each other in the face, knocking us both back. We got up and reached each other again. I threw a punch, slamming against his side. He grabbed my wrist and twisted me around, punching me in the back. I winced, but kicked my leg up and knocked his legs out from under him. He fell down, but pulled me with him, crawling on top of me and shoving his elbow into the small of my back. He grabbed my head and slammed my face into the ground, again and again and again. I held my hands into the ground, and with all my effort, I jerked to the side. It knocked the other me off balance, which is all I needed to grab him and punch him in the face, knocking him back as I stood back up. The other me stood up as well, and the two of us faced each other, panting and beaten.

"Do you… HONESTLY… think you're going to win?" asked the other me. "You… mutated… freak? You're nothing… like your old self…"

"…you're right," I nodded. "I'm not anything like my old self. I'm better."

I marched over to him and landed a punch across his face.

"Look what relying on pure power has brought you," I said. "You're broken down and a shell of the Nightmare that you were as you 'guided' me through my tests. Ironic, as you weren't even in a physical form during any of that."

"So?" the other me spat, trying weakly to punch me. I easily stepped back to avoid the punch, however. "It… doesn't matter if you win! I'm your… dark instincts! You can NEVER get rid of me!"

"…yeah," I nodded. "You're telling the truth."

"…what?" the other me asked, looking flabbergasted.

"I can't get rid of you totally," I said, turning my back to him. "To deny your own evil means to just push it into the subconscious, where it will fester and become stronger. You'll always be a part of me, and nothing I can do will ever change that."

"You… really think that?" the other me asked.

"I do," I nodded. Suddenly, I spun around and grabbed the other me by the throat, squeezing with all my might.

"Doesn't mean I can't try though," I shrugged. I pulled at his throat as hard as I could as I released him, and with a single punch, the other me flew back and rolled off the edge of the dive.

Suddenly, a column of darkness exploded from the edge, launching into the sky. The darkness whirled around me in a tornado and absorbed into me, making me gasp and grip my chest.

_It is complete._

I had no idea who or what said that, but the next thing I knew, a bright light erupted from my chest, blinding me. When I could finally see again, I looked down to see that I had a pure white heart-shaped mark on my chest. I touched it gingerly. It felt… warm.

"Is this…" I asked myself, looking down at my chest. "…my soul?"

With my head down, I finally noticed my Dive to the Heart. I couldn't see the whole thing, but after a moment, I started to slowly float in the air, allowing me to get a complete look:

The image of me was resting in the center of the dive. The heart shaped mark on my chest was on the chest of my image on the Dive as well. In it, I could see the faint outline of someone else. From the build, I guessed Pax. I was surrounded by darkness in the image, yet that one mark kept me lit up brightly. In the background, I could see the Manipulator backing away in pain, dropping a broken puppet's string.

"Does this mean I'm free?" I asked the void around me. Of course, I didn't get an answer as I was pulled away. The next thing I knew, I was on a dark beach, the waves ahead of me coming in and out in tides.

"…hello?" I asked the empty air, again meeting no answer. After a minute, I simply sat down on a rock and watched the waves.

I didn't know where I was, but I finally knew WHO I was.

No… I know who I AM.

I am Coron, the Nightmare with a Soul.

And to be honest? I was pretty damn proud of that fact.

* * *

**Author's Note: Awesome, this chapter turned out great if I can say so myself! Next chapter, we get back with the group and enter the Thousand Year Door, and soon Coron will even come back! You guys will see. Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	63. Chapter 62: Goompa's Last Chapter

**Author's Note: It's been too long since I've played Portal. But I must finish Half-Life 2 so I… can… oh, it's you guys again. Hey, how's it going? Me? I'm fine, thanks for asking. By the time this chapter comes out, it will be… let's see… oh, Halloween? Awesome! I wanted to dress up as Sora, but we really don't have the money to find the materials to do that… aw well, maybe I'll go as… Oh, I got it! By the time this chapter comes out, I shall be walking down the streets dressed up as Goompa! Prepare for insanity, everyone who lives anywhere near me! …why am I talking to people that never read my stories anyway? Aw well, where was I again? Oh yeah, this is the final arc of the book! I think we have… what, five chapters until it's done? Then we move onto Book 3 of Part I, huzzah! I won't keep you waiting, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 62: Goompa's Last Chapter**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Hurry, hurry!" Frankly said, pushing us down through the sewers to the Thousand Year Door.

"Frankly, we still have a few hours before noon," I said. "We can afford to walk."

The Nine of us (counting Frankly) were working our way down the sewer and toward the Thousand Year Door. It was a little weird, as Frankly never followed us to the door, save that first time. I guess he was just excited to see the door open, ancient archeological discovery and all. Goombella was refraining from looking at me, and I was doing the same for her. Vivian and Koops were also holding hands on our way to the door, but I really wasn't noticing. To keep my mind off… last night, I just made sure to keep my mind on the door.

Eventually, we came to the Thousand Year Door, standing closed like it always had. Of course, in a minute, that wouldn't be true.

"Alright, so I guess I'll just stand on the pedestal like I've done to write the map…" I muttered, standing on said pedestal. Suddenly, the stone circle around me glowed with the colors of the seven Crystal Stars. The Thousand Year Door glowed, and a giant keyhole appeared dead in the center. I didn't have time to wonder what to do next, as suddenly, the Crystal Sword appeared in my hand in a flash of light. It pulled my arm up so the tip was facing the keyhole, light building up at the tip. I had to hide my Nightmare hand behind my back, and Vivian had to back away a bit. The light suddenly focused into a single beam, which shot straight into the keyhole. The beam broke off into particles of light, there was a *click* that sounded deep inside the lock, and the keyhole vanished.

"…okay then?" I said, making the sword vanish. "Other than making a Kingdom Hearts reference, I don't understand what exactly that did-"

The entire chamber shook violently, making chunks of rock fall from the ceiling. The Thousand Year Door glowed, and for the first time in 999 years, 364 days, 21 hours and 42 minutes…

…it opened, letting out a blast of darkness that nearly blasted all of us off our feet. Once the wind died down, we all looked up to see the door held open, and on the other side was a dark portal, similar to the Nightmare Portals I could make.

"…I don't like this," Vivian said, shaking her head. "That doesn't feel like any other Nightmare Portal, it's… EVIL."

"I don't like it any better, but through that door lies a giant demon," I said. "We gotta go in, beat the demon, save the princess, and stop the X-Nauts from doing anything stupid!"

"Little late for that, isn't it?" joked Leon. This got me to smirk.

"Alright everyone!" I said, holding my arm up. "Forward… HO!"

Frankly stayed behind as the eight of us ran into the portal. Breaking through the portal felt like running under constant flowing ice-cold water, and after a brief sprint, we escaped the other side of the portal and wound up in a huge, dark hall, like a castle either cursed or banished to the deepest depths of the Underworld.

"Wow…" breathed Goombella, looking the hallway up and down. "This place… is…"

"A treasure trove waiting to be plucked!" Ms. Mowz finished, coins appearing in her eyes.

"…we're here to save the world, not collect treasure," Bobbery informed her.

"Who's to say we can't do both?" suggested Ms. Mowz.

"Ms. Mowz, PLEASE…" I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Let's just go, alright?"

"That demon won't know what hit him!" Leon said, throwing some punches to the air as we marched forward through the dark palace.

* * *

We stepped through a door into an old prison, littered with odd colored skeletons. I stopped in my tracks, causing a backup among my friends behind me.

"Oh this looks a little too familiar," I sighed, shaking my head. "I mean… I understand the last dungeon is supposed to be, like, a final exam of everything we've learned on our adventures, but the least they could do is not make a total REHASH of previously completed areas."

"Rehash?" asked Leon. "This place doesn't look rehashed…"

"Oh it is," Goombella nodded to him.

"I'll even prove it," I said, holding up my finger and tapping it along to an imaginary metronome. "Follow along if you know the lyrics. Step forward, two, three…"

I walked up to an oddly colored skeleton.

"Rise, two, three," I said as the skeleton rose from the ground.

"Horde, two, three," I continued, pointing up as skeletons dropped down and surrounded us in a horde.

"Slash, two, three." I spun in my spot, slashing through and vanquishing the skeletons in a circle around me.

"Corner, two, three." We slashed and fought our way through the horde and cornered the oddly colored Skeleton, the boss of the skeletons.

"Fight, two, three." We engaged battle with the skeleton, which could throw bones and summon more skeletons to fight us with.

"Gloat, two, three." I pointed to the boss skeleton.

"**Fools!**" the skeleton hissed. "**None can defeat my power of darkness!**"

"Slay, two, three." I stabbed the skeleton in the chest, cutting upward and releasing the evil spirit in it.

"Drop, two, three," I finished, pointing at all the skeletons collapsing to the ground in a bunch of useless bones as the evil spirit vanished.

"…that seemed almost routine," Bobbery noted.

"By this point, it is," I nodded, opening the door to the next room as I turned to look at my friends. "I mean, we're eight powerful comrades that can work together to slay any and all monsters."

"…um, Mario?" Koops said.

"We've already faced pretty much every single trap and pitfall," I continued. "We've seen castles, giant trees, a fighting ring, a steeple, a deserted island, an abandoned train station, and the moon."

"Mario…" Vivian pointed.

"This Palace is just copying everything we've done already and pasting it back out here," I shrugged off. "We can beat anything this place has to throw at-"

"MARIO!" everyone screamed, making me jump.

"Ah, what?" I asked. They motioned for me to turn around, and when I did, I saw a long pathway floating above a bottomless pit, monsters moving this way and that on it and pillars of fire moving around.

"…okay, that's new," I whimpered.

"We can still do it!" Leon said, pushing forward and into the next room. The rest of us looked between each other, shrugged, and followed behind.

* * *

A surprising twist of deadly traps in rooms, including spikes on the ceiling and walls, lava pits, and monsters gathering up and attacking us later, we came to an odd room with a staircase and four doors. The whole room felt… well, enchanted, as corny and overused as that may sound.

"Hold on…" I said, holding up my hand and walking slowly to the other door. "Who knows what could be on the other side of this? It could be a dragon, or a spike trap!"

"…what happened to the whole 'we can beat anything this place has to throw at us' thing you were talking about earlier?" Goombella asked, talking to me for the first time since last night. This, of course, caught me off guard.

"…it kind of went out the window after the palace started to pull out an insane amount of death traps," I said awkwardly.

"You've been through worse," Goombella said. "Heck, WE'VE been through worse!"

"I don't know, this place really gives everywhere else we've gone through a run for its money…" I said, rubbing the back of my head. The two of us just stared at each other awkwardly for a little while after that.

"…did something happen between you two?" Flurrie asked, looking between us.

"…nothing," I said at the same time Goombella did. This just lead to even MORE awkwardness.

"…wow, that's REALLY awkward," Goompa said. "I mean, wow. I can feel it in the air!"

"I know, right?" Ms. Mowz replied. "What do you suppose happened, any-AUGH!"

We all jumped back in surprise, away from Goompa.

"Hiiii!" Goompa said, twirling his little hat. "You know, you guys are getting harder and harder to find! I had to use the GPS chip to find you this time!"

"Wait a second… GPS chip?" I asked. "WHAT GPS chip?"

Goompa, in response, pulled a potato chip with "GPS" printed on it out of my hat.

"I feel like I should be surprised, but really, I'm not," I sighed, shaking my head. "What do you want this time, Goompa?"

"Well…" Goompa said, kicking his feet shyly. "This is the very last time I'll appear in this book."

"I'd ask what book, but frankly, I don't care!" I said, perking up. "This is REALLY the last time?"

"Yuppity yup-yup!" nodded Goompa, his tongue sticking out of his grinning mouth.

"YAHOO!" I cheered, hopping into the air and clicking my heels together.

"But before I leave, I decided to help you one last time!" Goompa said. "This room's made to be a stuck spot!"

"…stuck spot?" asked Vivian.

"A spot where you're stuck," Goompa said. "Not to be confused with a stick spot, where you're standing now."

"Wha…" Vivian looked down at her feet, which were stuck on a spot that looked like fly paper. "HEY!"

"What do you mean we're stuck, though?" asked Koops as he ran to Vivian, trying to pull her off the sticky floor.

"Those doors won't let you leave!" Goompa said.

"So we're locked in?" asked Bobbery.

"Nope!" Goompa said.

"Alright, I'm just gonna try that door out," I said, walking to the far door.

"It's not gonna wo-ork," Goompa said in a sing song voice. I ignored him and opened the door…

…to see my friends in the room on the other side.

"What the…?" I turned around to see, on the other side of the room, the door was open and I was standing on the other side, looking back.

"Oh God, we're stuck in one of THESE rooms!" I groaned, slamming the door shut.

"I told you," Goompa said, again in sing song. "That's why Imma help you all!"

"…I'm almost afraid to ask, but how?" I asked. Goompa held out two Jellybeans, which were… just floating in the air. He was holding them like the characters in Veggie Tales do, I guess.

"Pick a Jelly Bean," Goompa said, now wearing a black leather jacket and sunglasses. "If you choose the blue jellybean, you'll wake up back in your bed, believing what you want to believe."

"Wait, SERIOUSLY?" I asked, my hopes raising. Goombella's eyes widened, but everyone else just shrugged it off as another crazy saying from Goompa.

"But if you choose the red jellybean," Goompa continued, "you'll see just how deep the Rabbit Hole goes."

"…is the rabbit hole literal or a metaphor?" I asked.

"Maybe it's one," Goompa said, the outfit vanishing, "maybe it's the other. Maybe it's neither, or sometimes both!"

"Are you done?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"PINECONES!" Goompa shouted. "…okay, now I'm done."

"Alright," I said, automatically reaching for the blue jellybean. I paused, though, and looked between all my friends. My eyes eventually fell on Goombella, frozen with wide eyes. She was the only one between my friends who knew what it really meant by me waking up.

I started thinking about all we've done. The adventures we've gone through, the hardships we've faced, all to save the world. We were equipped to face off against the demon, and here I was ready to chicken out?

I saw this thing through this far. I was going to see it through to the end, for the sake of everyone in here. It may have just been a dream, but it was a pretty realistic dream, and I didn't want to let anyone down. I grabbed the red Jellybean and popped it in my mouth.

"…AH, GROSS!" I said, nearly spitting out the jellybean.

"What's wrong?" Vivian asked, having finally been pulled off the sticky floor.

"It was cinnamon flavored!" I said, disgusted. "I HATE cinnamon flavored jellybeans!"

"Well, it's time to go!" Goompa said. "But before I leave…"

"…yeah?" I asked.

"Would you like to sing the Goodbye song with me?" Goompa asked as a guitar began to play in the background.

"NO!" I barked, making the guitar in the background stop.

"Oh come on!" Goompa said. "This is my final hoo-rah! Can't I get a last wish?"

"Yeah Mario, it really can't hurt anything," encouraged Koops.

"…oh fine," I said, the guitar beginning again. "I still say this is going to end badly, though."

"_Hey this was really fun,_" sung Goompa.

"We hope you liked it too," I said begrudgingly.

"_Seems like we've just begun_

_When suddenly we're through!_"

Suddenly, a Rabbit Hole appeared, thousands of bunnies jumping out and rushing like a tidal wave into the hole, dragging us with them.

"_Goodbye, goodbye, good friends goodbye,_" Goompa Sung, walking alongside the bunnies as we were being pulled.

"_But now, it's time to go._

_But hey, I say, well that's okay!_"

"'_Cause we'll see you very soon, I know!_" a bunny jumped up and sung.

"_Very soon I know…_" sang Goompa.

"_Goodbye, goodbye, good friends, goodbye,_

_For tomorrow's a brand new day!_"

Everyone other than me was already pulled into the hole. My head was sticking out, and Goompa walked up to me. What he said next took me by total surprise, and I haven't forgotten it:

"_Nozan, Merlin, and all the Dreamers,_

_Will be waiting for you to come and play!_

_To come and play!_

_To come and play!_

Bye now!"

That was the last I saw of him as a bunny fell on my face and I was sucked fully into the rabbit hole.

* * *

**Author's Note: You know, this chapter WAS originally called "The Palace of Darkness" but I figured that, like Steve Urkel, Goompa overshadowed the rest of the cast and deserved one final shout out before he had to leave the book. Well, next chapter we get back to the Palace, along with riddles and a DRAGON! WOO! Well, until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**

* * *

***Static***

* * *

"Hi everybody!" Goompa said, walking out onto the page. "It's me! Goompa!"

A canned audience applause played in the background.

"Sorry I didn't get to say this in the chappie," Goompa said. "I didn't want the Author to see this, so I had to pirate this webpage!"

He turned to a nearby Pirate. "Thanks for doing this for me, Yellowteeth old buddy old pal!"

"Arrr, it be nothin'," the pirate said, grinning with yellow teeth.

"So anywho," Goompa said, jumping in a comfy armchair and blowing bubbles out of a pipe. "I just wanted to inform the lot of you that I shalt NOT be gone forever. Thou can still look forward to me in Book 3!"

"But won't Pax be upset about that?" Goompa asked. Goompa, in turn, laughed a hearty laugh.

"That's a good question, me!" he said. "And now, to answer it, let's go shoot lasers at people that don't like panda bears!"

"Oh boy!" Goompa said cheerfully. "I'm so hungry, I could eat an octopus!"

"HAI!" a third Goompa said, wearing a Japanese bandana.

"Hiiii!" the other Goompas said cheerfully, one in a Kirby suit and the other dressed as a potato. Together, the three of them flew into the sky.

AND SO ONCE AGAIN, THE DAY WAS SAVED, THANKS TO… THE GOOMPA GUYS!

* * *

**Goompa's Note: Yay for happy endings! This is, like, my FAVORITE episode of the Goompa Guys! Oh, but I've actually come to warn you about something… everyone who loads this webpage downloads me into their computers! So if you don't want me to spread across the internet, don't load this webpage, okay? Thanks! Well, with that said, until next book, this is Goompa the Old, pushing the logoff button!**


	64. Chapter 63: Dragon and Riddles

**Author's Note: Okay, I know this chapter is gonna come out a week after this happened, so you guys won't hear the news while it's brand new, but… I WAS CHOSEN AS PART OF THE ALL-STAR CAST FOR THE STATE DRAMA COMPITITION! WOO! I have a medal and everything! Finally, I know what it's like to win an Olympic gold medal! You know… at least… if there was an Olympic competition for acting… well anyway, I won't keep you any longer, this chapter, as promised, will bring Riddles, A DRAGON, puzzles, A FLIPPING DRAGON, character interaction, and… oh yeah, I almost forgot: A MOTHER{bleep}ING DRAGON! In… in case you didn't know, I really like Dragons. Well anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_**Chapter 63: A tower that's full of riddles that the majority of the party must solve as other characters move though and fight a giant dragon, which is AWESOME!**_

* * *

…**what, too wordy? Oh alright, how about…**

* * *

_**Chapter 63: Dragon and Riddles**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Oof!" I grunted as I landed face-first on hard concrete. "Ow… too many bunnies…"

"Evil, EVIL creatures…" I heard Vivian say. "So terrifying…"

"…you're afraid of bunnies?" asked Leon.

"Those things are fluffy white cotton balls of death!" Vivian said as I raised and shook my head. Looking around, I saw we were in what looked like a town square. There was a big, circular area concrete sidewalk with a huge tower in the center, surrounded by a fountain with a bridge that easily crossed it. To the right I saw an opening in the wall that looked like it led into a hallway of a castle or something.

"This must have been the center of the city back when it was above ground…" Goombella said, looking around.

"So…" I said, standing up. "If that means that over there leads to the castle, then the Demon must be there."

"How do you figure that?" asked Flurrie.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ms. Mowz replied before I could open my mouth. "The greatest treasure is always located in the very center of the most dangerous place, the place that's guarded the best. The castle is, obviously, the most guarded, and thus it will be the spot that holds the demon."

"So that means it's the first spot I'm tackling," I said, summoning the Crystal Sword.

"Hold on…" said Bobbery. "I don't know about you, but it looks to me like that tower over there has something important hidden in it."

"Mm… yes, I can smell something BIG in there…" Ms. Mowz said, sniffing in the direction of the tower.

"Alright," I shrugged. "We'll split up. I'll head over there toward the castle-"

"And Goombella will go with you?" Flurrie asked, pushing Goombella toward me before I could answer. "Good thinking, I was about to suggest the same thing!"

"Wait… what?" I asked. "But-"

"Well we better hurry back to the tower," said Koops, leaving with everyone else. "If either of us find something… um…"

"We'll contact each other!" Vivian finished. "With the Nightmare powers!"

"But… hey, wait a minute!" I called after them, but they were already gone by that time. Goombella and I were totally alone now. I'll let you take a wild guess as to how awkward it was.

"…so the castle, then?" Goombella finally said.

"Uh… right," I nodded. Together, we walked into the hallway and toward the castle.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

"Are you sure that sending them together will end that awkward tension?" asked Leon as we entered the doors of the tower.

"I'm sure all those two really need is to spend some time away from us to iron… things… out…" Bobbery said, slowing to a stop as he looked up at the huge tower we were now in. It was made of four floors, a long, winding staircase going up to each floor. The one we were already on had four doors, and I could see up the stairs a second set of doors on the next floor. What really threw us all was the powerful aura radiating from the tower itself. It didn't feel like the evil aura of the rest of the underground world, it was… well, I guess a good comparison is how a really big, really old library feels.

"Wow…" I breathed in amazement.

"Hang on!" Leon said, running up the stairs. A minute later, he ran back down.

"There's this BIG machine on the top floor!" he said. "But there's also four doors on the other floors."

"So that makes twelve rooms," Bobbery said. "Six of us. We could each see two rooms then gather at the machine at the top of the tower."

"Hang on," Ms. Mowz said. "What if we're supposed to see the machine first?"

"Well…" thought Koops. "…we're going to pass the doors on our way to the machine, right? So wouldn't it just make more sense to check the rooms out on our way up, then see the machine?"

"…alright, fair point," agreed Ms. Mowz. After a brief discussion, the six of us went our separate ways to see the first six rooms.

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

You'd think walking with someone you've already admitted your feelings for but was rejected from down an empty hall with no living creature other than yourselves wouldn't be awkward at all, right?

Well of course not you idiot, how could it NOT be awkward?

Anyway, the hallway seemed to stretch on forever, the only sound being our footsteps. The hall was kind of dark, the torches hanging on the walls letting off a faint light from black flames.

"…makes you wonder, huh?" I asked, trying to engage in witty banter. "I mean, I know it's magic or something, but what were the interior designers thinking? Was it like this when people were living here, or did the demon decide to spruce up the castle during its reign?"

"…" Pax said nothing.

"…right," I sighed, turning back ahead. "Not feeling up to talking. Got it."

Okay, I understood he felt really awkward after what happened last night. Frankly, I probably shouldn't have blurted it out so fast… no, screw that, I'm pretty sure I did it right. What I don't get is why Pax flipped out like he did. I never really FORCED myself on him, and it looked like he liked me, too. But he just pulled away randomly and screamed how he couldn't…

…wait a second. All those times he grabbed his chest and just zoned out… all those times he'd see something and it would put him into almost a trance…

And that name he said to Bowser in the Glitz Pit… the one thing that pushed him over the edge and put him in a Nightmare Rage… Bowser mentioned about-

OH! It FINALLY clicked in my head! I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it earlier!

"…Pax?" I asked as he pushed open the doors to a wide-open room ahead.

"…yes?" he said, turning to me.

"It's Bombette, isn't it?" I asked. Pax's eyes widened as he shakily took a step away from me.

"How… how do you know about Bombette?" he asked. "How MUCH do you know?"

"I know she was obviously someone important to you," I answered, looking him in the eyes. "I also know that she died in some way having to do with Bowser."

"…" Pax looked down and away from me.

"Pax." I walked closer to him. "Please. If nothing else, I want you to think of me as… a friend. You shouldn't carry this baggage all by yourself."

"…she was a Bob-omb," Pax finally said. "She was… well, I guess you could say she was my first girlfriend, if you can count an hour or two as time enough to be boyfriend and girlfriend. She's the first person I really, truly fell in love with. And she loved me back. Everything about her… her fuse, her stubbornness… God, and she was gorgeous."

He closed his eyes, leaning against the wall of the big room. I walked in further to stand next to him.

"We traveled together on our last adventure," he continued. "We went through dungeons, dealt with crazy people, crossed extreme terrain, dealt with crazy people…"

"Basically the same thing you're doing now?" I asked jokingly. Thankfully, he laughed a little.

"Yeah… yeah, kinda," he nodded. "Of course, Toad Town was a million times better than Rougeport."

"What isn't?" I replied. Again, he laughed, but it ended soon with a sigh.

"…our last battle took place in Bowser's Castle," he continued. "We fought Coron, but in the process, Bombette cracked her shell. And when we faced Bowser, well… he had this platform that enhanced his power, and… Bombette, she…"

His voice broke, tears welling up in his closed eyes.

"…a Bob-omb's final blast," I finished. "She… willingly sacrificed herself to save the world. Didn't she?"

Pax fell to the ground, totally breaking down. I quickly bent down next to him.

"Pax, I'm sorry," I said softly. "I… I don't know if there's anything I can say that-"

He didn't let me finish as he wrapped his arms around me and just sobbed into me. I blinked, then leaned against him to match his embrace. I couldn't hold him, but he was doing well enough…

"Aw," a deep voice suddenly said. "So sweet."

The both of us whipped around to see a huge, black dragon, grinning down at us. It looked like an older Hooktail, almost.

"Thank you for dropping yourselves in," the dragon said, whipping his tail to shut the doors. "I've been feeling a little hungry."

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

"Hm…" I rubbed my chin as I read the riddle on the wall over and over.

"Koops?" Vivian's voice asked. I turned around to see the Nightmare that could send my heart fluttering.

"Hey," I smiled. "Did you solve your room's riddle?"

"Yeah," Vivian nodded, showing an "A" letter tile. "You get these when you solve the riddles."

"Maybe they have to do with the machine upstairs?" I thought.

"Maybe," Vivian shrugged, pocketing the tile.

"…so what was your riddle?" I asked.

"Um… 'what can travel through water without getting wet?'" she quoted. "I guessed sound, and I got it right."

"Clever!" I nodded.

"What about yours?" Vivian asked, looking at the message on the wall. "…what's bigger than a whale and more ferocious than a dragon?"

"I've been guessing my best, but I just can't figure out any answer that would go with this," I told her as she walked up next to me, looking at the wall and thinking hard.

"Hm…" She tilted her head and rubbed her chin. "You know… I've heard a lot of riddles, but this is a new one for me…"

Suddenly, the tiles pulled back into the wall and re-arranged themselves to say:

"NEED A HINT?"

Me and Vivian looked between each other, then back at the wall.

"Um… yes, please?" I said.

"YO MAMA."

It spat out the "O" tile and hit me in the gut.

"…well THAT was rude!" Vivian said.

"It's fine…" I wheezed, pulling the tile off my stomach. "So now we have A and O."

"We'd better check out the other doors," Vivian said, offering a hand. I smiled and took it.

"Well anyway…" I said as the two of us left the room. "It could be worse, right? We could have been forced to face off against a dragon."

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

As the Dragon inhaled, fire building in his maw, I finally snapped back to reality.

"GOOMBELLA-" I started, but was interrupted as she slammed into me hard enough to push me out of the way. A pillar of flames shot at the wall, missing the both of us by inches.

"GO, GO, GO!" Goombella shouted as I climbed to my feet. The two of us ran as the Dragon swung around, whipping his tail at us. It crashed into the wall, sending down chunks of rubble. My mind finally clicked as I summoned the Crystal Sword, turning to face the Dragon.

"Alright you overgrown lizard, where's the Demon?" I asked.

"What, I'm not good enough for you?" the Dragon sneered. "You really don't have any manners at all, do you? Generally you ask for each other's names."

"…fine then, what's your name?" I asked.

"Gloomtail!" the Dragon boasted. "The great and powerful! I stayed in my cave during the time of peace, but once the Demon took over, I was free to come out and cause chaos!"

"Wait… Gloomtail?" I asked. "Any relation to Hooktail?"

"She's my sister," Gloomtail said. "Why?"

"…um-" I started.

"Wait a minute… you KILLED her, didn't you?" Gloomtail asked, his eyes flashing red with rage. "You KILLED my baby sister?"

"Hey, in my defense, she was trying to eat us!" I replied.

"SHE WAS A DRAGON, THAT'S WHAT WE DO!" Gloomtail barked. "OH, I'M SO ANGRY, I… I…"

He focused down at me and breathed a powerful flame of fire. I screamed as I ran forward, rolling to dodge the flames.

"Alright…" I said as I landed on my feet, now under the Gloomtail. "Take THIS! _Singi!_"

I held up my Nightmare hand and waited for the black flame to shoot out.

And waited.

And… waited.

"…huh?" I blinked, looking down at my claw. "What the…?"

"MOVE!" screamed Goombella. I looked up to see Gloomtail drop to crush me under him. I ran to the side and jumped to get out of the way.

* * *

_**Enter Koops:**_

* * *

"Hi Koops!" Leon said, walking into the room. "I finished my puzzle! How's yours going?"

"Not good…" I said, looking between a cube and a round hole in the wall. "It said I have to put this cube into this hole, but it just won't fit…"

"Hm… oh, I have an idea!" Leon said, running forward and picking up the cube. He then turned it and placed the corner into the hole so it was barely sticking in the hole.

"…Leon, I appreciate you thinking outside the box," I said, "but I really don't think-"

"THAT'S RIGHT, YOU DON'T THINK," the message on the wall said, spitting out a T at me.

"Oof!" I said, staggering back. "…well then, two for two I guess."

"Hey, that wall can't talk to you like that!" Leon said, holding up his fists. "I'll rough it up!"

"You can't rough up a wall, Leon," I sighed, heading to the exit. "C'mon Leon."

"Oh, coming!" Leon said, running after me.

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

Pax managed to barely get out of the way as the Dragon dropped to the ground. The drop caused the whole room to shake.

"I'LL FINISH YOU!" Gloomtail shouted, shoving his claws around Pax and breathing in to burn him. He was stuck, pinned down. My eyes widened.

"NO!" I ran forward and slammed again and again into Gloomtail's side. "LEAVE! HIM! ALONE!"

"Hm?" Gloomtail turned his head and chuckled at me before swatting me away. I crashed into the far wall, stars appearing in my eyes.

"GOOMBELLA!" I heard Pax scream. There was the sound of his sword disappearing and reappearing, and Gloomtail screamed in pain. I looked up to see Gloomtail grabbing the paw he used to pin Pax, the Crystal Sword jabbed in it. Pax then ran forward, making the sword appear in his hand before jumping up and stabbing Gloomtail in the chest. Gloomtail roared with agony, staggering on the spot. He looked down at Pax, who landed on the ground with a thump. His eyes clouded, and he fell back with a crash. I slowly got up and walked to Pax's side.

"…is he dead?" I asked.

"I think so…" Pax panted, nodding. He turned to me. "Goombella…"

He grabbed me close and hugged me. "Oh God…"

"Pax, it's alright…" I said, leaning against him. "It's over… it's all over now…"

* * *

**Author's Note: Ha, no it's not! I would have had something ELSE happen in this chapter, but in retrospect, it would work better in the next chapter, and I'm getting WAY too close to the deadline as it is. Sorry if the end seems rush (because it was) and until next chapter (ALSO full of action), this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	65. Chapter 64: Power Hungry

**Author's Note: Alright guys… in this chapter, we get exposition and not one, but TWO epic battles! Some people would think this is suicide to write… and those people are totally right! So enjoy this chapter as I prepare the Cyanide pills!**

* * *

_**Chapter 64: Power Hungry**_

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

"Wow…" I said, looking up at the huge machine on the top floor. It looked like… well, I'm not really sure WHAT it looked like. A Gyroscope? A map of the universe? I don't know, but whatever it was, it let off an aura of power.

"Hey, it looks like there are slots here for the letter tiles," Leon said, pointing at the large empty area in the front that did look like it could easily fit twelve tiles. The six of us poured our tiles on the ground. Together, they were P, T, U, H, S, T, R, A, O, S, T and O.

"Alright… so we have to arrange them in the proper order to spell out a sentence?" Koops said, moving some of the tiles around.

STAR UP TO HOST

"What host?" Leon asked.

"I'm not sure, I'm just trying different things out," Koops shrugged.

"Hm…" I bent forward and re-arranged the letters.

POST THOAR UST

"…one moment, I think I see something…" Bobbery said, using his feet to re-arrange some of the tiles.

PO H US TO START

"It looks like these tiles are trying to give us instructions…" Bobbery said.

"I agree," Flurrie said. "Let's try putting those last two words into the machine."

With a round of agreeing mutters, we put the tiles in that order on the right side of the spot where the tiles go.

"That just leaves us with P, O, H, U, and S…" I said, looking at the tiles. "…wait… Pohus… phuos… push?"

I knelt down and arranged the tiles again.

PUSH O

"A good idea, but the O's left alone," Ms. Mowz said. "…unless it's supposed to stand on its own?"

Ms. Mowz picked up the tiles and put them in the slot.

PUSH O TO START

"Push O to start?" Koops asked. "Is there any O shaped button on the machine?"

"Hm…" Leon stared at the sentence for a minute as the rest of us looked over the machine for an O shaped button. He stood on his toes and pushed in the lone O. The tile moved into the machine, and suddenly, it whirred to life.

"What did you do, Leon?" Koops asked, sounding impressed.

"I just pushed the O," shrugged Leon.

"Whoever built this machine really thought outside the box…" muttered Ms. Mowz. "…brilliant, really."

Suddenly, a hologram of a Dreamer appeared in front of us. He was a human, wearing armor made of condensed light. I know that sounds weird, but that's what it was.

"Testing… is this thing on?" the Dreamer asked, turning to the side.

"Yup, it's on," another voice said.

"Alright," the Dreamer said, turning back to us. "Hello there, whoever solves the big puzzle of this Dreamer Tower. My name's… well my name's not important, what IS important is the purpose of this Tower. You see, on the other side of that castle over there is a seal that contains the current Queen of Nightmares."

"The Demon's a Nightmare?" gasped Flurrie.

"I didn't know Nightmares had a queen…" Koops said, turning to me.

"She was a self-proclaimed queen," I shrugged. "Strong, but the legends say it was laughable how she tried to claim herself as queen."

"It most certainly NOT laughable how powerful she is," the Dreamer said, "so we had to intervene with this dream and lock her away. The current Dream Keeper… I'm afraid to say he doesn't have the kind of required power to take her down. Merlin says that, according to the legend, the Dream Keeper that will be able to destroy her will show up in a thousand years or so, so we've bound her in a thousand year lock. If you're watching this, then it's probably been a thousand years already. And if you're mind is open enough to be able to solve the riddles of this tower, you must also be the Dream Keeper of legend."

"…maybe we SHOULDN'T have started up this machine," Koops said. "It looks like this Dream Keeper guy was supposed to get here first."

"Wait… so those natives were RIGHT after all?" asked Bobbery. "There really IS a-"

"So now," the hologram of the Dreamer continued, interrupting Bobbery, "this machine will open the way to the Queen of Nightmares. Good luck… you're going to need it."

There was a pause.

"Oh thank God, we're done…" he sighed, picking at his teeth. "I swear, when you just CAN'T pick at something is when it bothers you the most. That's the last time I eat Popcorn the night… before… wait, is that still on? HEY, TURN THAT OFF RIGHT NO-"

The Hologram blipped out, and the entire area shook violently, like a massive earthquake was striking.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

I was shaking, the memories of Bombette fusing in with the adrenaline of fighting against a Dragon. I soon found that I was shaking pretty violently, and for a minute I thought I was having a seizure before I realized that I wasn't shaking: The whole ROOM was!

Walls and floors fell apart, moving and changing themselves into a whole new room. The far wall opened more as the walls near us got narrower, expanding into a bigger throne room. When the shaking was finally over, we were standing in a throne room, a man in an elite X-Naut cape and holding a scepter standing where the throne would be.

"…impressive," he said, raising an eyebrow. "You came much more quickly than I thought you would."

"Yeah? And who are you supposed to be?" Goombella asked as I got up. The man chuckled darkly.

"You'd do well to watch your tongue, girl," he said, pointing his scepter at her. "Or someone else may just shut it for you."

"Don't you dare point that thing at Goombella!" I said, summoning the Crystal Sword for the umpteenth time that day as I got into battle position. The Elite X-Naut laughed a cruel laugh.

"Such stubbornness from the both of you!" he said. "Well, I suppose that would explain how you managed to make it this far. No matter. My name is Grodus, and I am the leader of the X-Nauts!"

"So YOU'RE the cause of all this?" I asked. "You're the one who kidnapped Princess Peach and invaded that tree and tried to destroy the island? You're the one that set up the near destruction of the world multiple times?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes and no," Grodus answered. "I wouldn't dream of destroying something I plan to take over."

"Oh of course," sighed Goombella. "Cliché bad guy motive number thirty-five, world domination. What makes you think you're going to take over the world, anyway?"

"I'll tell you what…" Grodus said. "That room behind me contains the ancient Demon that's been sealed away for one thousand years. Once I release her, she will use her powers to help me conquer the world!"

"…you're kidding, right?" Goombella asked. "You're going to ask a Demon to help you take over the world?"

"I'll be the one who brings her back!" Grodus replied. "She'll have no choice but to do as I say!"

Goombella and I looked between each other, then back at Grodus.

"For a leader of an entire organization, you're not really all that bright," I noted.

"Oh what do you know?" asked Grodus.

"Apparently he knows more than you, seeing as he understands making deals with demons never turns out well," Goombella added.

"Grr…" growled Grodus, gripping his scepter tightly. "I'm beginning to understand the frustration of everyone who fought you."

"Yeah, we're pretty snarky in our dialogue," shrugged Goombella. "I blame the media."

"Well I suppose I'll just have to wipe those smug looks off your faces now!" said Grodus, getting into battle position. Goombella and I did the same, and together, we ran forward, ready to fight.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

"What the heck was all that shaking?" Leon asked, looking around. "Did an entire building just move or something?"

"It must have," Koops said, standing up and helping me back to my feet. "The Castle's open for us to go in now, I guess the real castle just came out of hiding now."

"Well we better… wait a minute…" Ms. Mowz said. "What about Mario and what's her face?"

Realization struck us all like a hammer.

"They were IN the castle when we turned it on!" I said, covering my mouth. "What if we crushed them?"

We were silent for a minute.

"…hey guys, come on," Leon said nervously. "It's Pax the Dreamer we're talking about. He's survived worse, right?"

"…just to be safe, we better hurry back," I said, running down the stairs to leave the tower.

"Why don't you just open a Portal?" asked Koops as he followed behind me, everyone else in stride behind him.

"Too much interference from this tower," I replied. "I'll need to get a little bit away before I warp."

We left the tower and ran to the entrance of the castle, but we were stopped in our tracks as a dark portal opened in front of us.

"Wow Vivian," blinked Koops. "I didn't know you could summon portals without any motions or anything."

"But… I didn't…" I started, but stopped when I saw Beldam, Marilyn and Doopliss step out of the portal.

"Beldam!" I gasped, stepping back. Koops took a step forward protectively.

"Hey what am I, chopped liver?" asked Doopliss.

"YES!" everyone-Beldam and Marilyn included-cried simultaneously.

"…then why did you bring me with you?" Doopliss asked.

"I DIDN'T!" Beldam snapped. "You FOLLOWED us! We've been trying to lose you ever since the Excess Express fiasco!"

"…you know, I'm starting to get the feeling you really don't want me here," Doopliss said.

"I want to strangle you," growled Beldam.

"Wow, I'm feeling, like, waves of hostility coming off of you," Doopliss said, backing off.

"…so anyway," Beldam said, turning back to us. She was glaring directly at me. "Hand over the Dream Keeper and we'll go easy on you."

"What Dream Keeper?" asked Flurrie. Beldam sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Mario, Pax the Dreamer, whatever you call him, just give him to us!" she snapped.

"You're too late, old hag!" Leon blurted. "He's already way ahead of you! I wouldn't be surprised if he's beating up the Demon right now!"

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

I ran forward, the Crystal Sword held high. Grodus jumped back, much further than I would have expected him to jump.

"I think you'll find that I'm a much stronger adversary than any you've faced thus far," Grodus said, spinning his scepter and pointing it at me. Space around me distorted, and I found myself frozen in the spot, time around me ground to a standstill.

"Pax!" Goombella said, running up to me as I struggled against the holds that his scepter placed around me. "…don't worry, I'll get that scepter!"

"Fat chance, little girl," Grodus said, jabbing his scepter on the ground as he tossed out scrap metal and gears. A jolt of electricity shot through the metal, and it pulled together into an X-shaped Robot.

"Little girl?" Goombella asked, glaring at him. "LITTLE girl? Oh it's on now!"

She charged Grodus, but the robot intercepted and knocked her back. She landed on her feet and sprinted forward. The robot aimed a tackle at her, but she dodged and delivered a powerful kick. This knocked the robot back, and Goombella turned back on Grodus and ran. Grodus waved his scepter, taking direct control of the robot as it flew back at Goombella. She timed it JUST right and rolled out of the way of the attack, kicking the scepter out of Grodus' hands. It smacked to the ground, making the robot fall apart and allowing me to move again.

"Thanks Goombella!" I said as I ran at Grodus again.

"No prob!" Goombella smiled. Her smile soon turned into a wince, however, as Grodus jumped to his scepter and waved it in her direction. Scrap metal and gears flew at her, too big of a cluster for her to dodge.

"Goombella!" I called out as she was thrown across the room.

"I'm… fine…" grunted Goombella, pulling herself out of the pile. "…PAX, BEHIND YOU!"

I spun around and held up my sword in time to block a powerful swipe from Grodus' scepter. The two of us were locked together, my sword pressed against his scepter. Sparks flew between the two weapons as they pushed harder and harder against each other.

"Why don't you just give up?" asked Grodus. "Resistance will only be met with annihilation once the Demon has awakened!"

"Has it occurred to you that maybe if I stop you from summoning the Demon," I said, "I won't have to worry about that? Just a suggestion."

"Shut your SNARKY little mouth!" growled Grodus.

"Hey, I don't tell you how to handle your stress!" I replied. "You don't tell me how to handle mine!"

Grodus then kicked me in the chest, knocking me back.

"Hey!" I coughed. "That was a low blow!"

Grodus placed the tip of his scepter inches away from my face, charging the power from within it.

"So is blowing your opponent's head off while they're down," he smirked.

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

"Him? Fight the Queen?" laughed Beldam. "He'd be slaughtered in five minutes!"

"Hey!" Leon pulled up his fists. "Don't you dare talk about Pax like that!"

"…you're finally following someone?" I asked quietly.

"…what?" Beldam turned to me.

"You've always wanted to lead yourself…" I continued, my fists clenching. "You never really realized how bad you were at it…"

"Why you little…" growled Beldam. "Don't you dare talk to me like that, you broken Mutt!"

"I'm not the broken one!" I snapped. "YOU are!"

This threw Beldam back. Even Marilyn's attention was captured.

"Hasn't it occurred to you even ONCE?" I continued, feeling like a floodgate inside my chest had just broken open. "Everyone you infect keeps their soul! You've tried to physically alter yourself to make yourself superior… but really, your mind was NEVER capable of it!"

"Shut UP, you little witch!" hissed Beldam, her fists clenching as well. "I've always been the smartest! My mind's the most capable of anyone!"

"Are you joking?" I asked, laughing in spite of myself. The idea was just so ridiculous I couldn't stop myself. "I don't want to brag, but me and Marilyn were always the smartest ones in the house! You were never capable of leading anything!"

"Oh, you think you're SO superior!" Beldam snapped, and for a minute she started to sound like the human I grew up with. "Mother always DID like you best!"

"She would have liked you too if you even TRIED to be likable!" I replied snappishly.

"SHE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND ME!" Beldam screeched. "Dad was the only one who really understood me, and he left after you showed your ugly mug into the world!"

"…that wasn't… why he left…" a voice said, making us all turn to Marilyn in shock. She slowly and jerkily moved to my side, facing Beldam.

"That's… that's impossible…" gasped Beldam, her eyes wide. "How could you…"

"Drugs… don't last… forever…" Marilyn struggled. "Even Nightmare… bodies… build resistance…"

"Marilyn… you shouldn't strain yourself…" I said, holding up my hands to my sister. She brushed my hands away, however.

"I'm… fine…" she strained. "Rest… later…"

She turned back to Beldam.

"Dad… left, not… because of… Vivian…" she said. "He… left, because… he had… no choice…"

"And how would YOU know?" Beldam growled, glaring at both me and Marilyn. "Did he tell you everything?"

"…yes," Marilyn replied, which COMPLETELY threw Beldam back. "He… told me, because… he wanted me to… tell you, and Mom… when you were… ready."

"…what?" whispered Beldam.

"Dad… was a Dreamer," Marilyn said, throwing me for a loop. From the look on Beldam's face, she was, too. "Nightmares… were tracking… him down… he… left, to… protect us…"

"…no," Beldam whispered, shaking her head and taking a step back. "You're lying!"

"I… wouldn't lie… about… this…" Marilyn said, taking deep breaths.

"Dad… but _I_ was his favorite!" Beldam said. "How could he have chosen you to tell over me?"

"You… weren't… ready…" Marilyn struggled. Beldam screeched and shot a bolt of ice at Marilyn, throwing her back. Flurrie and Bobbery ran to her side to make sure she was okay.

"MARILYN!" I screamed after her, then whirled to Beldam. "How could you do that to her? She's your sister!"

"I HAVE no sisters!" spat Beldam. "Both of you… WORTHLESS! Broken messes!"

"We're not broken!" Vivian said. "…not anymore, anyway…"

"What are you getting at?" growled Beldam.

"A Nightmare's abilities are limited not only by their physical strength, but their mental well being," I told her. "You know that already. But your mental health is clouded by layers of inferiority and superiority."

"Shut up…" Beldam growled threateningly.

"You were always overshadowed by us…" I continued. "And I'm sorry for that. But that doesn't give you the excuse to fall into the Darkness and willingly purge yourself of your humanity!"

"Shut up!" Beldam barked.

"You convinced yourself that you were superior!" I said. "You bullied me and drugged Marilyn so we wouldn't stand up against you! But you've always known, deep down, that you felt inferior to us. You felt inferior to other Nightmares because of your crippled powers, but those crippled powers are caused by you feeling inferior! Well I'm sick of your bullying Beldam! I'm sick and tired of cringing from you and watching you treat me and Marilyn like… worthless cretins! We're not the worthless ones, YOU are!"

"SHUT UP!" Beldam screamed at the top of her lungs, surrounding her fists with darkness as she charged at me. She swung her fist…

…which I caught in my palm. I looked up, staring her dead in the eyes.

"And I'm not afraid of you anymore," I whispered.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"HEY!"

Grodus turned his head in time to be kicked in the face by Goombella.

"KEEP! YOUR! HANDS! OFF! HIM!" Goombella screamed, following each word with a kick or headbonk. This gave me enough time to get up, and I turned to see Grodus catching Goombella by the foot.

"You little WITCH!" he screamed, throwing her across the room. I managed to run to her and catch her mid-air, rolling to the ground and softening her impact.

"Oh… Pax, are you okay?" Goombella asked.

"Yeah, just fine…" I nodded, getting on my knees as Goombella climbed out of my arms.

"I'll end this, right here!" Grodus said, pointing his scepter at the both of us. "Just one hit from this and you'll age into dust!"

"…throw your sword at him," Goombella whispered to me.

"What?" I asked.

"Throw it near his left shoulder, as hard as you can!" Goombella urged. "Hurry!"

I didn't doubt her thoughts, so I tossed my sword right where she told me to throw, as hard as I could. Grodus broke the charge of his scepter to knock the sword away.

"Really?" asked Grodus, shaking his head at us. "That was the BEST thing you could come up with? It wasn't even CLOSE to hitting me!"

"He wasn't aiming at you!" Goombella said.

"I wasn't?" I asked, looking at her. I heard the CLANG of metal hitting stone, and all three of us turned to see the Crystal Sword ricochet off the wall and fly to a further wall, which it bounced off as well. Our heads followed the sword as it bounced across the walls, flying at angles and bouncing off the floor. Eventually, the sword flew up and hit the spot where the chandelier that I didn't even notice until then hung on the ceiling. There was a loud groan, then the chandelier broke off and fell toward Grodus. He screamed and tried to run out of range, but it wasn't fast enough: With a CRASH, Grodus was trapped under the Chandelier, his scepter rolling out and toward our feet.

"…how in heck were you able to calculate the math required to figure out that trick?" I asked, bending down and picking up the scepter.

"I play a lot of puzzle games," Goombella shrugged, smiling at me. For a minute, I smiled at her, too.

"…um, hello?"

Goombella and I looked up to see Princess Peach stuck in a green electronic bubble, floating above the door leading to the next room.

"Princess Peach?" I asked. "Hey, I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"Oh Mario…" Princess Peach said dreamily, looking down at me. "I just knew you'd come back to save… wait a minute, what happened to your Italian accent?"

"…um…" I shuffled my feet.

"And now that I'm thinking about it… the same thing happened when you saved me last time," Princess Peach said.

Just when I pushed it back into my mind, Princess Peach reminded me of Bombette's final moments, like shoving a nail into an open wound.

"Mario?" asked Princess Peach, as I was now starting to curl up again. "Are you… okay?"

"…yeah," I lied, and I knew Goombella knew it was a load of crap, but she didn't say anything to that. "So… how were you put in that bubble?"

"That man used his scepter to summon this around me…" Princess Peach said. "Maybe one of those buttons on it could-"

She didn't finish, as I just slung the scepter over my shoulder and smashed it to pieces on the wall. As little shards of the electronics in that scepter scattered across the room, the bubble around Princess Peach vanished, leaving her to fall to the ground.

"AAAH!" she screamed as she fell.

"DON'T WORRY, I GOT YOU!" I shouted, running under her and holding out my arms. A minute later, I was sprawled on the ground, Princess Peach sitting on me.

"Oh… Mario, are you alright?" asked Princess Peach as she stepped off me.

"It's okay, my tubby belly broke the impact…" I wheezed, standing up and leaning on the wall nearby. "I just need… a little breather…"

CRASH!

Suddenly, none other than Bowser and his Magikoopa sidekick crashed in, turning to face us.

"BWA HA HA!" Bowser laughed. "MARIO! We've FINALLY caught up with you! Again!"

Though after a moment of laughing, it looked like his little brain caught up with him as he took a few steps back, looking at me cautiously.

"…" I sighed. "Bowser… I REALLY don't have time for you. Now, I'll give you two options. Either one, you leave, or two, we'll beat you to a bloody pulp."

As an added threat, I flexed my Nightmare hand in front of him.

"…I think we'll just leave," Bowser said, backing up.

"Smart," I nodded, turning to see…

…both Grodus and Peach gone. The door to the next room was left wide open.

"…" We were all silent as we stared at that door.

"…AFTER HIM!" I screamed, dashing down the stairs. Goombella followed behind me, and even Bowser looked confused for a minute before shrugging and following along with his Magikoopa sidekick.

* * *

_**Enter the Magikoopa Sidekick:**_

* * *

MY NAME IS KAMMY FOR STAR'S SAKE!

* * *

**Author's Note: Suuuuuure it is. Well anyway, sorry I said there was going to be TWO epic battles, after thinking about it I discovered that Vivian's fight should go into the next chapter, along with the CLIMACTIC BATTLE WITH THE DEMON QUEEN! Until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	66. Chapter 65: Death

**Author's Note: Oh… my… God… Minecon, it was just… WOW! BEST CONVENTION EVER! Mojang are good people, I know it, they were so friendly during it all, and I GOT MY PICTURE TAKEN WITH MINECRAFTCHICK AND NOTCH'S WIFE! Did you hear that? Notch's. WIFE. And she's pregnant! A little Notch is going to be running around in the world in a few months! Okay Pax, calm down… you can stop hyperventilating now… okay… okay, I'm good. If you guys want to read/see more about my trip to Minecon, feel free to check out my blog! A link to it is in my profile, just click on the home site… thing. Well anyway, now to the chapter! Enjoy, everyone!**

* * *

_**Chapter 65: Death**_

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

Beldam looked at me in shock as the hand I held her fist in glowed a deep shade of red.

"_**Singi**_," I said. A HUGE blast of fire shot out from the palm of my hand, enveloping Beldam and knocking her back.

"What…" Beldam spat in shock, slowly getting up and smoking. "How… you were… NEVER this powerful!"

"I never thought that I could fight back, either," I replied. "But now that I can…"

I ran forward, throwing a punch. The fist clashed against Beldam's face, sending her flying away and landing in the fountain nearby.

"THAT was for Mom!" I shouted. The fountain shook, and water shot out. The water froze as it arced up, and Beldam slowly rose, glaring at me with utmost hatred.

"**You…**" she growled, her voice seeping with darkness. "**I'll show you what your place is, you little Witch!**"

Koops, Leon and Flurrie ran to me to help, but I held out my hand and created a force field, keeping them all away while trapping Beldam and me inside.

"Vivian!" Koops called, beating against the force field.

"I'm sorry Koops…" I turned to him. "This is my fight."

"Don't do it!" Koops begged, hitting his fists on the barrier. "The last time Mario did that, he lost his soul!"

I smiled sadly, putting my hand against the force field over his hand.

"Trust me on this," I said. "Please…"

Koops looked me in the eyes for a minute before slowly nodding and stepping back, concern etched on his face.

"**Don't you know NEVER to turn your back to your enemy?**" Beldam cried out as she ran forward, shooting out razor sharp shards of ice at me. Still looking at Koops, I held out my hand and created a wall of flames to block the ice.

"I love you, Koops," I said softly. "I'll be with you in a minute."

I spun around and swung my hand, shooting out a blast of fire that knocked Beldam back.

"**Gr… enough games!**" Beldam said, standing up and charging her hand with pure darkness. "**You and me, raw power, right now!**"

"…alright," I nodded, facing her dead on. "I'm ready for you, Beldam. Give me your worst."

She shot out a beam of pure darkness, which I met with my own. They collided in the middle, pushing against each other. Both of us were trying to gain the upper hand, and energy was sparking and arcing from the point our beams met.

"**STAND DOWN!**" she barked. "**I… I ORDER YOU!**"

"For the last time…" I grunted, pushing all my power through my hand. "You… you have no power, anymore!"

My beam grew stronger, pushing her beam back. She looked down at it in shock.

"**Stop it!**" she screamed. "**I'm… I'm stronger than…**"

Doubt began to creep into her voice. Realization finally came to her, and with it, her beam slowly grew weaker.

"You're NOT stronger!" I said. "You're nothing more than a… a bully!"

"…**after all th**is time…" Beldam said, her wrath becoming fear as she watched the beam get closer to her. "After everyone I killed, everything I sacrificed… I'm still as weak as I was back then?"

She slowly turned her gaze up to me.

"But you…" she said. "You've gotten stronger… what is it that you've always had that I never could get?"

"…love," I finally answered. "I could feel affection towards others. I-"

"Oh cut the whole 'friendship is the greatest power' speech!" Beldam snapped, glaring at me again. "Marilyn already gave me that speech long ago, and look at how much good that did me!"

"…you're twisted," I said. "I thought you were just misguided, you didn't know any better… but you're just…"

"A Sociopath?" laughed Beldam. "Yeah… I guess I am! All those things I've done… I had my soul the whole time!"

"You had your soul?" I gasped in horror. Suddenly, Beldam broke the connection and ran at me, stabbing me in my side with her hand, which she turned into a dagger. I cried out as I collapsed on the ground.

"VIVIAN!" cried out Koops, pounding on the field. Beldam laughed, placing a foot on me.

"Bye-bye, little miss perfect," she said, holding up her fist and preparing a massive blast. Without any warning, I spun around and jabbed my claw into her leg. She screamed and flailed, kicking around and releasing the darkness. I BARELY dodged it and pulled Beldam down, climbing on her and putting my claws on her shoulders.

"No!" Beldam struggled, much weaker after the blast she let loose. "No… I won't… let… you…"

With one final strain, I focused my energy to flow through her and pull. Suddenly, Beldam exploded into black particles, absorbing themselves into me. After a moment of silence, I fell forward, breathing heavily. The force field faded, and Koops ran to me, picking me up in his arms.

"Vivian, are you okay?" he asked gently. I smiled up at him, closing my eyes and feeling my chest.

"…yeah," I said. "Marilyn… when she wakes up, tell her that… tell her, we don't have to worry about Beldam… anymore…"

Exhaustion flowed over me, and the world went black as I fell unconscious.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

The four of us ran down the stairs, stopping in front of the large, dark doors.

"…this is it," I gulped. "Really, REALLY it. On the other side of this door is the Demon."

"And Peach and Grodus," added Goombella with a nod. "Well… I'm ready."

"I… really don't know what's going on, but as long as I get to beat someone up and kidnap a princess, that's fine by me!" Bowser said. I turned to face the two-sorry, three, I forgot the Magikoopa-that stood there.

"…you guys can't come in here with me," I said. "I'm doing this myself."

"What?" asked Goombella in shock.

"Aw, but I wanted to kick some butt!" whined Bowser.

"Do I even have to remind you what happened the last time you fought by yourself?" asked Goombella, walking closer to me. "I won't let that happen to you again!"

"I'm sorry Goombella…" I said, reaching into my pocket for something I bought back when we were getting supplies. "But the last time my friends entered the final battle with me…"

I shook my head. "I won't let that happen again."

"Try and stop me from going in with you," dared Goombella, glaring at me.

"I knew you were going to say that," I replied, pulling out the stopwatch. Goombella's eyes widened as she took a step back.

"…you wouldn't," she said.

"I am," I told her as I put my thumb over the button.

"No!" Goombella ran forward. "Pa-"

Click.

Goombella froze in mid-air, trapped in time along with Bowser and that… flying… thing. Pocketing the stopwatch, I stepped forward and lifted the helmet off Goombella's head, kissing her on the forehead.

"Goodbye, Goombella," I told her, turning around and stepping through the doors. On the other side was a dark, ominous room, full of lit candles. On the other side was a black coffin, and in the middle were Grodus and Peach.

"Let… go of me!" struggled Peach, flailing in Grodus' arms. "Mario will be here any minute to… MARIO!"

Grodus turned and glared at me.

"You just won't give up, will you?" he asked.

"Not exactly in my nature, no," I shrugged. "You know, if you just quietly give the Princess back, we can avoid all this hoopla. Just a suggestion."

"What do you think I am, stupid?" asked Grodus.

"…well-" Princess Peach and I said simultaneously.

"ENOUGH!" barked Grodus, throwing Peach at the foot of the coffin. "Demon Queen, possess this princess of purity and bring darkness across the world!"

Suddenly, a dark wind started to blow. The lid of the coffin shot off, and a dark, evil mist floated out. All the candles went out, and the flames were replaced with black flames. Eyes wide, Princess Peach tried to back away, but the mist surrounded her and absorbed into her. She screamed as she gripped her head, falling to her knees, and a minute later, after an explosion of darkness, she rose. Her eyes were black, and her dress was now way more evil looking.

"_**Ah…**_" said the Demon Queen, sounding a lot like a Nightmare as she looked at her gloved hands. "_**Finally, after all this time… I'm awake again.**_"

"Great Demon!" Grodus said, throwing himself in front of her. "As the one that released you from your thousand year seal, I give you my wish! Grant the world to me!"

The Demon/Nightmare Queen looked at Grodus like he was a particularly annoying fan.

"…_**oh I'm sorry,**_" the Queen said. "_**For a minute, I thought you were serious.**_"

"Wha… but I AM!" Grodus said. "I brought you back! I am your Master!"

With a bored wave, black lightning struck Grodus, completely destroying him.

"_**Now then…**_" She turned her gaze upon me. "_**I don't suppose you're here for unlimited power, are you?**_"

"Nope," I shook my head, summoning the Crystal Sword. "Just to defeat you."

The Queen laughed a dark, evil laugh.

"_**You expect to slay me with that toy?**_" she asked.

"Toy?" I asked, insulted. "I'll have you know this sword has slain a bunch of Nightmares!"

"_**Hm… well, no matter,**_" she said, throwing her arms back and charging up darkness. "_**Let's see what you're made of.**_"

"Yes," I agreed, holding up my sword. "Let's."

I ran at her, the sword held high. She shot a bolt of darkness at me, which I reflected off the flat of my blade. Eyes widening, she took a step back and shot out bullets of darkness. I held my Nightmare hand up, attracting and absorbing the bullets before I jumped up and sliced the Crystal Sword through her. She gave a horrid scream as she backed up, the spot I sliced through burning, but her flesh physically unharmed.

"_**Grrr… it seems that this body is too weak,**_" she said, looking down at her hands. "_**It looks like… yes, I'll have to unleash my TRUE power upon you!**_"

"Say what?" I asked as she shook. A column of darkness enveloped her, and after a moment, a HUGE Nightmare appeared, slowly turning down toward me.

Believe it or not, at that moment, I found it REALLY hard to find a witty comment.

Instead, I held up my sword and prepared to fight her back. She reached down and smacked me across the room, having my sword fly out of my hand. I reached out to summon it, but she shot me with a dark bolt, making me scream in pain and the Crystal Sword vanish in flickering light. I tried to summon it, but every time I did, dark static went through my arm.

"_**Now then…**_" She reached down toward me. I tried to run, but she had me pinned. She grabbed me by the throat and slowly lifted me into the air, looking at me with dark, evil eyes.

I heard the doors slam open behind me, and Goombella screaming my name. The Queen sneered, and snapped her hand.

As she dropped me to the ground, I did pretty much the worst thing I could do in that situation.

I died.

* * *

**Author's Note: The main protagonist? Dead? Oh no! But… only two-three chapters left! Until Friday, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	67. Chapter 66: Awakening

**Author's Note: Oh goodness me, remember what happened here last time? What happened to Pax? What, I ask you? WHAAAAAAAAAAT? Well calm down, you're about to find out!**

* * *

_**Chapter 66: Awakening**_

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

A "ding" went off in my head, and the three of us became un-frozen.

"-ax!" I finished, landing on the ground. "What the… NO!"

"Huh?" blinked Bowser. "Were we just frozen?"

I ignored him as I burst through the doors, looking up to see a giant, dark Nightmare holding Pax in her hand.

"PAX!" I cried out. The demon just smirked at me, then twitched her hand, letting Pax go. I saw him fall limp on the ground, the world going silent around me.

"…Pax," I whispered, running to his side. I looked down at the… corpse on the ground.

"No…" I blinked hard, tears blinding me. "Pax… PAX! NO, PAX! DON'T LEAVE ME! Don't… don't leave me…"

The world shattered around me. I didn't notice anything, I didn't CARE about anything. I knelt next to the body, crying my eyes out.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

A haze surrounded me as I opened my eyes. I saw that I was floating in a void of darkness, a fog surrounding me.

"…hello?" I asked. My voice echoed in the darkness.

"…I guess this is it," I said, leaning back. "I'm… dead."

"Not exactly."

A light shone behind me in the darkness. I whirled around to see…

"BOMBETTE!" I cried out, flying forward and grabbing her in a hug. She gasped at how sudden it was, but laughed and leaned against me.

"I missed you so much…" I whispered. Bombette sighed and pulled out of my grip, looking me in the eyes.

"So… wait a minute," I said, my brain catching up to me. "I'm… not dead?"

"Right," Bombette nodded. "Well… kind of."

"So… does that mean you're alive?" I asked hopefully.

"Again… not quite," Bombette shook her head. "Actually, totally wrong. I'm as dead as a doornail."

"So…" I paused, thinking. "I'm NOT dead… yet you are… so…"

"It's complicated," sighed Bombette. "See… you're kind of in-between life and the Overthere right now."

"So… I'm half-dead," I simplified.

"Well if you want to look at it that way…" Bombette admitted. "Listen… the Queen of the Underwhere has pulled you out of your death because she knows what kind of good you can still do for the Dream World."

"…so you figured it all out then, didn't you?" I asked. "I'm… not really Mario."

"Well of course you're not Mario," Bombette said. "Just look at yourself!"

She nodded over to empty space, and a mirror suddenly appeared there. I turned to look in it, seeing that I was in my old body, blue shirt and jeans and everything.

"…okay, wow," I blinked, rubbing a hand through my hair. "This is… new."

"I, personally, think you look good," Bombette said playfully behind me. "Too bad about losing the mustache though…"

I laughed and turned to her, but the laughter quickly died as my smile faded.

"Bombette…" I said, looking down. "I'm… I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" blinked Bombette. "For what?"

"For letting you die!" I said, looking back up at her face. "If you hadn't had come into that final battle with me-"

"Then Bowser would have won and you would all be dead," Bombette interrupted. "I'll be the first to admit that I did NOT want to die that day… but I did it saving the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach… and you."

"But… Bombette…" I reached a hand out to her, but she stepped away, looking at me with sad, but determined, eyes.

"Pax," she finally said, totally capturing my attention, "stop being so hung up. My death was sad, yes, but…"

She looked up. "…you already have someone who holds you in her heart."

I could hear Goombella's sobbing, which made me look up. An image was floating in the sky, showing Goombella slumped next to Mario's body, crying her eyes out as darkness gathered around the Demon Queen. Bowser was unconscious, so I wasn't sure whether he was knocked out when fighting her, or just conked out from fright.

My money was on the later.

"Goombella…" I whispered, reaching a hand out to the image. Bombette looked at me sadly.

"She's important to you." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. I turned to look at her, afraid of answering.

"…but you're afraid that if you like her back, it'll be like you're cheating on my memory," Bombette continued.

"Wha… how did you know?" I asked.

"You're REALLY predictable sometimes, Pax," laughed Bombette. "But… I don't mind. Really."

She floated close and nuzzled against me. "I love you… but you deserve better than a ghost."

"…" I looked between Goombella and Bombette, and back.

"Don't worry about how I'll feel," Bombette insisted. "Do whatever will make you happy."

"…alright," I nodded, turning to Bombette. "You don't mind, though…?"

"Pax, I PROMISE you, I'll be fine," Bombette laughed. "Now… don't you have some business to take care of?"

"…yeah," I nodded, summoning the Crystal Sword in my hand. "Yeah, I do."

"Good luck, Dream Keeper," Bombette winked at me, and suddenly, a golden doorway appeared behind her. I started toward it, but stopped and looked back at Bombette.

"…I still love you, though," I told her. "You'll always have a special place in my heart."

Bombette stared at me for a few moments, her eyes tearing up.

"…go," she said, her voice beginning to break. "Get out of here you Macho Idiot, before I start to regret this."

I laughed nervously, turning back to the door.

"Here goes nothing…" I muttered, stepping through the door. I was surrounded by a blinding light…

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

I couldn't have been at that beach for long, but it felt like years. I paced the sand, sat in the waves, balanced on the log… anything to kill time. And all the while, I was thinking. I was thinking about the Manipulator… I was thinking about Pax… I was thinking about my own soul…

My own soul…

It felt unreal, almost. Just knowing that I had a soul in my body. Feeling the warmth on my chest.

My claw was on my chest as I lay on a log, looking into the dark sky above. A few moments of thinking later, I let my hand drop to my side limply.

"…you know," I said to myself, sitting up, "this is really good for thinking, but…"

I stood back up, the sand going between my bare claws.

"…I'm ready to leave now," I said to myself. "I've had enough of hiding and learning. I want to fight now."

Suddenly, an image appeared in front of me: The Nightmare Queen of legends was rising from a chest, charging darkness around her.

"My final test, I take it?" I asked the sky. "…no. Not my last test, my first challenge."

That seemed to be the magic word. Behind me, a light shined. I turned to see a doorway of light standing there, connecting to outside the beach.

"Well…" I sharpened my claws. "Let's do this."

I dashed on all fours through the doorway of light.

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

"…what?" I whispered as the body began to glow. It slowly stood up, shaking with a golden power.

"Pax…?" I asked, thinking I was going crazy. The glowing body ran forward…

* * *

_I could see myself inside Mario's body, but…_

**The tunnel of light seemed to pull me through as I ran.**

_Something felt different this time. It was like_

**The hall twisted and turned, and before I knew it, I wasn't even running anymore.**

_I was running inside a suit of armor, and the armor slowly got heavier the further I ran._

**I was… flying. Through was seemed to be a mixture of darkness and light.**

_The Crystal Sword was in my hand, but it was glowing with a powerful light._

**A powerful light led the way ahead**

_The "armor" I was in got heavier and heavier_

**And suddenly I knew**

_I had to jump._

**So, I took**

_A deep breath_

**And**

_I_

**Leapt**

_Into_

**The**

_Air._

**Light.**

* * *

_**Enter Goombella:**_

* * *

Mario's glowing body was running forward, the Crystal Sword in his hand. Only, the sword was glowing with a powerful light, and suddenly, Mario's body exploded with light in his front. Mario dropped to the ground, unconscious, and the light that leapt from his body took human form and became… a kid. He was my age, with a blue T-shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes. His hair was poofy and brown, and the sword he was holding was more advanced. It had a golden handle with wings, the blade was so white I almost thought it was made of pure light.

"…Pax?" I asked as the kid fell to the ground.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"…Pax?" Goombella asked behind me.

"Huh?" I turned around to face her. Her eyes lit up when she saw mine.

"PAX!" she cried out, running to me. She was stopped halfway, however, when a dark barrier erected itself halfway through the room, leaving me and the Shadow Queen on one side and Goombella and the rest on the other.

"Pax!" Goombella pounded on the wall.

"What the…" I ran to her and pounded my fist on the wall.

"_**So you believed that you could have**__**just walked away?**_" the Demon Queen asked, making me whirl around. "_**When I want something dead, it stays dead!**_"

**Oh piss off, you over-glorified excuse for a Nightmare,** a voice next to me said. I turned and jumped when I saw a ghostly image of Coron floating next to me.

"…Coron?" I asked, surprised.

**No, Dave,** Coron said, rolling his eyes at me. **OF COURSE I'M CORON YOU GIT.**

"Geeze, no need to get sarcastic," I muttered.

"…who are you talking to?" Goombella asked behind me.

"Coron!" I said, turning to her and pointing at him. "He's floating right here!"

"Uh… no he's not," Goombella shook her head. "Maybe the Demon Queen's messing with your head?"

**Or maybe I only exist inside your soul, so you're the only person that can see me,** Coron added. **Just a thought.**

"Exist in my what now?" I blinked.

"_**Will you two shut up?**_" the Demon Queen snapped.

**Oh, so you can see me?** Coron asked.

"I guess other Nightmares can see you," I suggested.

**Look, can we save this exposition for another time?** Coron asked. **We still have that whole "evil Nightmare that wants to destroy the world" thing going on right now.**

"Oh chill," I told Coron. "She's just as distracted as we are."

**No she's-MOVE! **Screamed Coron. The Nightmare Queen was shooting a bolt of dark energy at me, but thanks to Coron, I dove out of the way JUST in time.

**Let me out!** Coron said. **I can fight her!**

"How do I do that?" I asked Coron, getting up and running as the Nightmare Queen was blasting dark energy at me.

**How the hell am I supposed to know?** Coron threw his hands in the air. **You're the Dream Keeper, figure it out!**

"Okay, um…" I paused, thinking. "Um… SHIFT!"

My body erupted into black flames.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

Before I knew it, the black flames flickered out and I was standing where Pax was a minute ago. From behind the wall, I could hear the Goomba scream.

_Hey, it worked!_ Pax's voice said near me. I turned to see his ghostly image floating near me.

"…shift?" I asked. "Really? You couldn't have been more creative?"

_Well maybe if you had given me more help…_ Pax started.

"Oh forget it," I finally said, turning back to the Nightmare. "Alright you hag… let's dance."

The Nightmare slammed her hand down, which I managed to dodge easily. With a twitch of her head, however, she sent a horde of black hands out of the ground, reaching toward me.

"Oh I don't think so," I said, transforming my arms into blades and swiping through the hands, leaving them to dissolve into shadows as they dropped.

_Yeah!_ Pax said, throwing punches in the air. _Give them the old "one, two"!_

I ignored him as I ripped the last hand, turning to face the Nightmare.

"Is that the best you can do?" I taunted. "Because I was really hoping for a challenge after all this time spent sleeping."

"…_**why don't you join me?**_" she asked. "_**Think about it… if the two of us worked together, we could overthrow the entire Dream World!**_"

"Let's see…" I tapped my chin. "Will you take 'no way in hell' as an answer?"

In return, she just growled at me.

_You're turning down the offer to dominate the world?_ Pax asked. _My God, you ARE reformed!_

"Yeah yeah, got a soul and everything, can we not make a big deal out of it?" I asked. "Besides, the only real reason a big bad like that would ever offer to let me join her is because she knows I can beat her easily."

"_**You'll regret your decision to not join me, fool!**_" cried the Nightmare.

"Oh, of course I will…" I muttered, sending a thought to Pax. From the look on his face, it seemed like he got it. I crouched down, and when the Nightmare shot a beam of darkness at me, I sprinted forward and slid on my knees.

"SHIFT!" I barked, holding up my right hand as I slid near her. My body was enveloped in bright light.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

As the light faded, I continued to slide on my knees and sliced right through the Queen with the upgraded Crystal Sword. She screamed in pain as her flesh burned.

"Wow, good thinking Coron!" I said as I got up. "…but OW! Did you have to slide on your knees?"

**You're worried about skinned knees at a time like this? **Coron asked.

"Well-" I started.

"_**You… you've unlocked that accursed sword…**_" the Queen hissed as she slowly turned to me. "_**That horrid sword of legends… the Sword of Dreams!**_"

"Sword of Dreams?" I asked, looking down at the upgraded sword. "…I like it."

"_**I WILL END YOU!**_" the Queen cried, holding out her hands. We were suddenly enveloped in a dome of darkness, seeming to act as a portal, because the next thing I knew, I was floating in a hell-ish place full of black and purple colors.

**Holy mother of… **started Coron, looking around. **Pax, do you have any idea where we are?**

"I'm afraid to ask," I gulped, holding the Sword of Dreams tight.

"_**Welcome to the Nightmare Realm, little Dreamer!**_" laughed the Queen. "_**Now that I'm here, my power can reach its fullest!**_"

"Oh… Crap," I said.

**Quite,** agreed Coron. From the corners of the dark dimension we were in, Nightmares began to appear, hundreds of THOUSANDS of them, stalking toward us.

"Can't you talk some sense into these guys?" I asked Coron nervously.

**Currently, the wannabe queen is letting off a powerful aura,** replied Coron. **I can't compete with that.**

"Well can you beat them up?" I asked, getting desperate as they approached.

**You expect me to single-handedly take them ALL down? **Asked Coron.** I'm a Nightmare, not a miracle worker!**

"Alright…" I took a deep breath, holding up the sword. "Sword of Dreams, hear my plea…"

**You're talking to the sword. **Coron looked at me like I had just snapped.

"I don't know what else to do, okay?" I snapped at him, then turned back to the sword. "Please, use your powers in our time of need… give us the power we need to overcome this situation!"

At first, nothing happened. The Nightmares were getting closer, we were about to be buried under an avalanche of pitch black flesh, when suddenly…

A brilliant light shone from the Sword of Dreams, keeping the Nightmares away. Seven bubbles came out of the sword, and those bubbles transformed into the Crystal Stars. They spun around us before shooting off, vanishing in flashes of light.

"Hey…" Koops' dad's voice came from nowhere. "Look at this Crystal Star! It must be from Mario!"

"Mario?" another voice asked. Then, the Punies started to speak to us.

"Go, Marty-o!" the elder cheered on.

"Mario?" Punio asked. "Is he in danger?"

"Pax the Dreamer!" Rawk Hawk's voice came. "He fightin' someone? Well I KNOW you won't lose to it! You won against me, you're not ALLOWED to lose against anyone else!"

"Pax the Dreamer!" came the chanting of some of the other fighters. "Pax the Dreamer!"

"Go Mario!" the elder of Twilight Town said. "We believe in you!"

"I wish you to have the best of luck, _senior_!" Cortez's voice called out.

"Go Mario!" cried the voices of the people on the island. "You can do it!"

"You'll do an excellent job, Luigi!" Pennington's voice said.

"Go Mario!" multiple other voices said. "Mario!"

"…wait, MARIO?" asked Pennington in shock.

"You better not die!" the Russian Bob-Omb said. "You have been through TOO MUCH to die right now!"

Countless other cheering and encouragement came from the air, filling the void with positive energy.

**What's going on here? **Coron asked, looking around at the aura that was in the area.

"You're going to groan," I warned him as I held out the glowing sword.

**Try me,** he dared. I looked over at him and smirked.

"It's the power of friendship, dude," I said, and suddenly, a MASSIVE wave of light came from the Sword of Dreams. All the Nightmares hissed, and we were suddenly in a bubble, which seemed to split in two.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

"Huh…?" I looked down at my claws, then to my right at an almost visible Pax, along with an almost-visible Nightmare Queen.

"_**What did you just do?**_" she hissed.

"I think…" Pax looked at the sword. "I think the sword split this whole area into two pocket dimensions or something. I have the Shadow Queen, and Coron, you have the Nightmares."

"Oh Joy," I said sarcastically. "You get one, I get a thousaaaAAAH!"

The Crystal Stars suddenly surrounded me, filling my essence with power. I could feel my body full of the kind of power that could only be found in a Limit Break. I held out both my hands, and each one extended into a ten foot claymore.

"Alright…" I nodded as I looked up at the Nightmares, smirking. "Let's do some stress management."

"I can't tell if that one liner was lame or awesome," Pax said.

"Do you want me to hurt you?" I snapped at him.

"Nono, go kill those Nightmares," Pax said, flying after the Shadow Queen. I turned back to the Nightmares and rushed forward.

The first thing the group did was come at me in a wave. I moved my feet, and suddenly, I was running on the ground. As the wave approached, I rolled on the ground, under the first barrage, and spun on my head, slicing through at least fifty on my first spin. I jumped back to my feet, slicing down and wiping out a chunk near me. A dozen Nightmares on each side of me got the wise idea to fuse together, transforming into huge Nightmares, which lumbered after me. With a smirk, I jumped as one swiped its claw and ran up its arm, stabbing my arm into its face. As it exploded into dark particles, I back flipped and spun in the air, charging up and unleashing a rainfall of pure dark energy. This rainfall destroyed the smaller Nightmares on contact and weakened the larger ones enough for me to destroy them with one slice each on the way back to my feet.

"Now this is more my style," I smirked as I stood straight up, cricking my neck as the Nightmares jumped into the air to attack me.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Do you want me to hurt you?" Coron snapped at me.

"Nono, go kill those Nightmares," I replied, flying after the Shadow Queen. She was glaring daggers at me, pure hatred etched on her entire being as she held out her hands and shot out what seemed like a million tiny hands. The Sword of Dreams glowed, and time seemed to slow down and I flew through and around the hands, getting up to the Shadow Queen and slicing my sword at her. It made contact with her flesh, causing it to turn white and burn. She screamed as she jumped back, stretching out her arms and turning them into swords.

"Hold on, time out," I said, pausing and holding out my hand. "What is it with you Nightmares and turning your arms into swords? It was cool the first few times, but now it's just… well, if you can turn your bodies into ANYTHING, why do you keep choosing to turn your same arms into the same broadsword blades?"

"_**Broadsword?**_" asked the Shadow Queen, brandishing her Katana Blade arms. "_**What Nightmares have you been fighting?**_"

"Apparently those that have never studied the Japanese culture," I replied, holding up my sword in defense as she swiped her katana down at me. The force behind her blow knocked me back, and she flew in to finish me off. However, I managed to recover in time and duck under her swipe, stabbing forward at her body. She parried my stab and used her other arm to attack me. I leaned against my sword to kick off and swing under, the katana blade grazing my hair and clipping off some of my bangs.

"Hey!" I said, flying back and rubbing my hair. "…actually, I think you did a pretty good job there. Got a mirror I could use?"

"_**Are you ALWAYS this infuriatingly snarky?**_" the Shadow Queen snapped.

"You know, it's weird that you say that," I replied. "You're the second person today to ask me something like that."

"_**YOU ARE FIGHTING THE QUEEN OF ALL NIGHTMARES!**_" the Shadow Queen screamed, holding up her arms and charging darkness into them. "_**I DEMAND YOU PAY ME THE RESPECT I DESERVE!**_"

"…this is probably not a good time to bring it up," I said, holding up my hand, "but don't you mean EX queen of Nightmares?"

THAT set her off. She shot out a concentrated beam of Darkness at me, which I blocked with the Sword of Dreams. The blade of light seemed to resonate with the beam of darkness, and a strange feeling energy flowed through my body.

* * *

_**Enter Coron:**_

* * *

I jumped up to meet the Nightmares that were jumping me head-on, slicing through them all with a well-executed twist. Nightmares under me jumped up, their own arms turned into swords, but I turned down at them and managed to strike them all with two slices, making an X in the air. Once I landed on my feet, I turned my arms back to normal and curled my arms to my chest, focusing all my power into my being.

"Nightmare…" I grunted, my eyes turning a dark grey with the darkness flowing through me. "**BLAST!**"

I released ALL the energy in me in one go, sending out a massive wave of destruction that arched out across the field and over the Nightmares, and before I knew it, they were all gone. I knelt on the ground, panting for breath.

It was then I heard the sound of a beam of darkness and Pax grunting. I turned my head to see him keeping away a beam of concentrated darkness with the Sword of Dreams. I was about to call something out to him when all the black particles that came from killing all the Nightmare shot into me, filling me with a strange energy.

"What… the…" I looked down at my claws as the energy grew inside me. The Seven Crystal Stars appeared around, and before I knew it, the "pocket dimensions" fused back together, but only around the Shadow Queen. I was pulled next to Pax, and the Crystal Stars flew down and surrounded us with raw power.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

The Shadow Queen's beam of darkness was cut short by the intervention of the Crystal Stars, and I could feel a connection of power between Coron and me.

"Brace yourself…" Coron said, looking at his claws. "I think we're about to execute a Dual Limit!"

"I don't know what that is, but I'm ready," I nodded, holding out the Crystal Sword. A single image filled my head, and it seemed to fill Coron's as well.

"DUAL LIMIT!" we cried out simultaneously. "_DREAM'S _**ECLIPSE**!"

Dark ropes shot out from nowhere, skewering themselves in the Demon Queen and keeping her from moving. She struggled against the bond as Coron flew up into the air. He held out his arms, and a HUGE black dome came from his being. Rainbow Wings sprouted from my back as I flew at the Shadow Queen. I started to move so fast around her it looked like at least five of me were appearing and disappearing, slicing through the Shadow Queen with the Sword of Dreams. I continued to do this until the giant orb of darkness got close enough, then I flew right into it, turning the whole sphere a rainbow color. It enveloped the Shadow Queen inside it, which was hollow and full of mixed energies of Light and Darkness. Both Coron and I were running across the hollow inside of the sphere, taking turns to jump through and taking hits at the Shadow Queen. Eventually, we flew next to each other and looked at each other with determined faces. We nodded, then met our blades together-My Sword of Dreams, his arm. The point where the tips of the blades met glowed with a powerful energy, and together, we flew down and stabbed the Shadow Queen right through the chest, making her gasp in pain. We sliced right through, leaving a glowing spot in her chest as we left the sphere. We turned around and Coron snapped his fingers at the same time I swiped my sword. The entire sphere shrunk down to a single point inside the Shadow Queen's chest, then…

BOOM!

A MASSIVE explosion of light and darkness erupted, sending waves of powerful energies rippling through the Realm of Nightmares. The power of the blast was so strong, in fact, it completely shattered the area around us, dispelling the power the Portal had and landing me (Coron had vanished into my hand) back in the room with Goombella. Princess Peach's unconscious body also dropped from the empty space on the ground.

"Oh my Stars, is she…?" Goombella ran up to check on Peach. "Thank Heavens! She's alive!"

"That's… good…" I panted, slowly turning to her. She grinned massively and ran to embrace me. I weakly held out my arms, but the next thing I knew, the massive exhaustion took its toll. I dropped the Sword of Dreams, and the last thing I remember is falling forward before everything went black…

* * *

**Author's Note: Fun fact, I didn't go into this chapter thinking it would be the final battle. I think it turned out alright though, and let me tell you, I was REALLY looking forward to writing that Dual Limit for awhile now! Well, Wednesday will be the final chapter for the Sword of Dreams where we wrap everything up, so until then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	68. Chapter 67: Saying Goodbye

**Author's Note: And now, we have… the final chapter… of the Legend of the Dream Keeper: The Sword of Dreams… enjoy. (Imagine me saying that like those dramatic people sitting in chairs next to the fireplace on TV.)**

* * *

_**Chapter 67: Saying Goodbye**_

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

"Oh…" I slowly sat up, rubbing my head. "God… what happened?"

**Look who finally woke up,** remarked Coron. I turned to see him lounging next to me, drawing my attention to the room of the Rougeport Inn I was in. Goombella was sitting in a chair next to my bed, her head slumped in sleep.

"Geeze…" I climbed out of bed, giving my legs a second to support my weight. "That Dual Limit took a lot out of me…"

**You and me both,** Coron said. **Fortunately, you did all the resting for me.**

"Alright, but next time YOU take the nap," I replied, making Coron chuckle. I walked over to Goombella, kneeling down and gently shaking her.

"Hm…?" She stirred a little, slowly blinking awake. "Wha…"

Her eyes locked on mine, and hers went wide.

"Pax!" she cried out, jumping toward me. I grunted, not expecting this, but I wrapped my arms around her and held her close.

"Oh Stars… Pax…" Goombella nuzzled against my chest, her voice a mix between laughter and crying. "You've been out for days now… I was terrified…"

"Days?" I looked at Coron, who shrugged.

**Sorry, you had to rest up for me as much as you did for you, **he said. **…oh, you two are having a moment. I'll just turn around.**

He turned his back to us. I rolled my eyes, but turned back to Goombella.

"I'm okay now," I told her. She turned her head up at me, eyes sparkling with tears. Our faces were only an inch away. We slowly brought our faces closer, eyes closed, and-

"Hey, he's awake!"

Goombella and I were _rudely_ interrupted by everyone rushing into the room, wrapping us in a group hug.

"Ah!" I cried as I fell to the ground under everyone, but I couldn't help from laughing along with everyone else.

"So it looks like I was calling you the right thing the whole time, huh?" Leon asked.

"What?" I asked, turning my head up to him. "What are you talking about?"

"He's talking about him," Koops said, helping me back to my feet and pointing to the doorway, which had Princess Peach standing next to Mario.

"Oh…" I blinked. "Hey… uh, Mario."

He waved at me politely. So he really DIDN'T talk after all.

"So… you guys find this easy to accept?" I asked my friends. "The fact that I wasn't Mario at all?"

"Mari… sorry, Pax," Flurrie said, "we fought through MANY dungeons, temples, and seen things that we never thought we'd ever see before. This isn't exactly the most surprising thing in all our travels."

"See?" Goombella added, smirking at me. I laughed before turning back to Mario.

"Listen…" I moved past everyone, standing in front of the Italian Plumber. "I'm sorry for… you know, possessing you this whole time."

He waved his hand, as if saying "it's alright" before holding it out with a smile. I smiled back and took his hand, giving it a friendly shake.

"This is so cool!" Leon said. "Pax the Dreamer is shaking hands with the body he USED to be Pax the Dreamer!"

"His name's Mario," I told him. "The world's most famous Italian Plumber!"

Mario gave a thumbs up.

"…never heard of him!" Leon replied, causing Mario to faceplant. I laughed along with everyone else, but after a minute, my laughter died down.

"…what's wrong?" Vivian asked me.

"Well, it's just…" I sighed, rubbing the back of my head. "Don't get me wrong, I like you guys and all… but…"

"You want to go home," finished Bobbery. I nodded.

"…what in the world is that?" Ms. Mowz said, a light glowing nearby. I turned to see a doorway of light standing in the middle of the room. Coron floated down next to me, peering in with me to see…

**That's… you, isn't it? **Coron asked, pointing to the faint image of me sleeping in my bed.

"Yeah… it is!" I said in excitement, turning back to my friends. "Well… I guess this is where I go."

"Can't we go with you?" Leon asked. I smiled, but shook my head.

"Sorry, I don't think that would be a really good idea," I said. "But hey… I came back once before, I'm sure I can come back again. WITHOUT going into Mario's body!"

This I added toward Mario, who sighed with relief. Leon, who was closest, ran forward and hugged my leg.

"I'm gonna miss you," he said. I kneeled down and picked the tiny Yoshi up.

"…are you crying?" I asked.

"N… no," Leon lied, rubbing his eyes. "I'm just… been through a lot, my eyes are acting up…"

I hugged him. "I promise you Leon, I'll come back. And when I do, we'll fight together like old times."

"Really?" asked Leon.

"Have I ever broken a promise?" I asked, holding him out and looking him in the eye.

"…you're right!" he said as I placed him down. "I'll see ya soon, Pax!"

Ms. Mowz stepped up, looking at me for a bit without saying anything.

"…I'm sorry, but it's just not the same without the hypnotic mustache," she said. "Still though, you're a sweet kid. I can tell you're gonna make a girl really happy one day."

She turned to Goombella, making both of us blush a bit. She went for the door to leave, but paused and kissed Mario against his will.

"Now YOU, hunk of cheese," she said seductively. "If you ever want to see me, I'll be around."

She winked before rushing off, leaving Mario standing in confusion, Peach fuming behind her.

"Why that… that little…" she started.

"Floozy?" laughed Goombella. "Yeah, you get used to her after awhile."

Bobbery stepped up, looking at me with pride.

"Pax…" he sighed. "It's… been an honor fighting alongside you. If I had a medal, I would give it to you in a heartbeat."

"It's alright," I told him. "If you had a hand, I'd shake it in a heartbeat."

Bobbery laughed at this, stepping aside as Vivian walked forward.

"Pax…" she took a breath. "Thank you. If it wasn't for you, I never would have escaped the horror I was living. I never would have had the courage to face my sister. And… I never would have met Koops."

"Glad you guys are happy together," I said, laughing with everyone else as Koops blushed a REALLY bright red, covering his face.

"Good luck in your travels…" she said before looking at the ghostly image of Coron. "And you…"

**Yeah, I know,** Coron rolled his eyes. **You'll be watching me, I better sleep with an eye open, I better not hurt him or-**

"Keep him safe," Vivian interrupted. "Alright?"

Coron seemed taken aback at this.

…**alright,** he nodded. **After all, if he goes, I go, and I can only IMAGINE what trouble this kid can get himself into.**

"Hey!" I said, offended. Vivian giggled a little at this exchange.

"…who are you TALKING to?" asked Leon.

"Oh… just Pax," Vivian said, stepping back. Flurrie floated forward next.

"Ms. Mowz was right," she said with a laugh.

"Hey, I CAN grow a mustache!" I grumbled, rubbing my upper lip. Everyone laughed at this.

"I'll still miss you though," she said, pulling me close and breaking my ribs in a hug. "These adventures have been even more than I could have imagined."

"Ribs… crushing…" I wheezed.

"Oh, sorry!" she said, letting go of me.

"It's fine…" I muttered, holding my sides as Koops walked up.

"Pax…" he started.

"Koops, it's fine," I said, holding out my hands. "Really, you don't have to-"

Koops hugged me in a brotherly hug.

"Thank you…" he said. "For everything."

He let go of me, his hands on my shoulders.

"You… you're going to do great," he said, smiling. "I just know it."

He gave my shoulder a pat before stepping back, leaving only Goombella to step forward.

"…it's been the best month of my life," she finally said, smiling up at me.

"Hey… Goombella?" I knelt down close to her.

"Yeah?"

"I think we forgot something earlier…"

"I guess we did…"

And we kissed. This time, I wasn't scared. I had no regrets. It was just me and her, molding our hearts into one through each other's lips. An eternity later, we pulled away, looking each other in the eyes.

"…for the love of Stars, you BETTER come back," she said, managing a weak glare. "You're not allowed to just come in, steal my heart and break it in half."

"Goombella, I WILL come back," I swore to her.

"He already promised!" added Leon.

"Yeah, I guess he did…" giggled Goombella. I pulled away, looking the group over for a minute before turning back to the door of light.

"Here goes nothing…" I said, taking a deep breath. "Ready?"

**As I'll ever be,** replied Coron, settling down on the ground. Together, we walked side-by-side through the door of light…

* * *

_**Enter Vivian:**_

* * *

…and like that, he was gone.

It wasn't long after that we prepared to part our separate ways. Princess Peach even offered a boat to take us to the Mushroom Kingdom along with herself and Mario. Flurrie was the only one who accepted, though.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" she asked the rest of us.

"I'm waiting for the next boat back to the UG," Goombella answered.

"Don't bother, we'll send you a private liner," Peach said.

"Well… thanks!" Goombella said, taken aback.

"I'm heading back to the Glitz Pit!" Leon said. "Don Pianta is gonna hook me up with tickets on a PRIVATE PLANE! How awesome is that?"

"I'm just going to live here," Bobbery said, turning back to the city of Rougeport. "It's not the most beautiful place in the world… but it's home."

"And I… actually wanted to talk to you about that, Koops," I said, facing him and holding his hands.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Well…" I shuffled my feet, thinking it over. "I'm… about to leave this Dream. And… I was just wondering…"

"If I'd like to come with you?" I finished for her. "Of course!"

"You don't mind…?" I asked. "I mean, your town, and… your family…"

"You already heard, I'm not missed there at all," I told her. "I want to be with you, Vivian. You make me the happiest Koopa in the world, and I want to share that happiness with you."

I blushed, giggling a little at this.

"Okay…" I turned and held out my hand, opening a portal out of the Dream. "Make sure to think of the thing that's closest to your heart."

"I already have her next to me," Koops replied, kissing my cheek. I smiled warmly, and together, we stepped through the portal and into the unknown.

* * *

_**Enter Pax:**_

* * *

My eyes fluttered open, staring up at the ceiling of my room. I pulled the covers away and looked at my bare left hand to see that it was, once again, a human hand. With a deep sigh, I sat up and put my feet on the carpet of my room, rubbing my eyes. I turned to the window to see that the faint light of the sun was pouring in on this Sunday morning. Nobody was awake yet.

_Ironic…_ I thought to myself as I stood fully up, stretching out my arms. _I was on an adventure for a whole MONTH, yet I wake up the earliest._

I put my hands in the pocket of my sleeping pants, my fingers touching something metallic.

"Huh…?" I pulled out the object, pulling it close to my face to see it was a jump drive. My memories suddenly flashed back to the Dream, then to when I last came back and brought back the Star Rod.

My eyes widened, and I hurried out of my room and to the computer. I silently booted it on, then plugged the jump drive in, downloading the single file that was on. It took a few minutes for the whole file to get onto the computer, but when it finally did, the Command Prompt program opened on the desktop.

"THANK YOU" it typed out for me. Smiling wide, I typed back:

"You're welcome, TEC."

* * *

**Author's Note: And they all lived happily ever after, the end… not! We still have Super Paper Mario to go through! Well, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you fans… I'm going to take a break from the Legend of the Dream Keeper series for a tiny bit, so I can read through this book and make some edits to create a finished product. See, what you see posted online are rough drafts, I have the REAL books stored on my laptop. And hey, maybe if I can get a lawyer or something, I can get Nintendo to give me the OK to publish this as a full book! Don't worry though, the series will get back to uploading soon… ish. Updates can be found in the Author's Notes of the Yibirth Macisto, so if you REALLY want constant updates, just read my other story! Yes, I can be evil like that. So, until next time, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!**


	69. Epilogue: Nowhere and Nothing

_**Epilogue: Nowhere and Nothing**_

* * *

_**Enter ?:**_

* * *

Nothingness.

Not light, not dark, but… nothingness.

Pure, unbridled nothingness.

I was floating… part of… something. Growing from it. Attached.

Emotions… they were flowing through me. Hurt. Rage. Suffering. Pain…

Pain!

PAIN!

Something ripped through me, I could feel the pain of the hole in me. I wanted to scream, but I had no mouth to do it. I wanted to move, but I had no body.

Then… it was pulled out of me. The something that I was attached to. It was… gone.

I was hollow.

Empty.

Incomplete.

The hole stitched together, but there was nothing to stitch. I wasn't even a shell, in or out. I didn't exist.

I floated deeper into the nothingness… but it was replaced by darkness.

I was surrounded by darkness… and that's how I could tell where I was.

I was the nothing in the dark.

With this knowledge, I could feel the nothing… harden. It became a shell. A moving shell. Still hollow… but with form.

The first that came was my body. Hands… feet… head… all of it. With my body came touch. I could feel myself slowly float down and touch the ground. I could feel myself sitting on my hands and knees.

Next came sight. Colors of purple and black surrounded me. I slowly turned my head around to see black squares floating around. The entire area… it was full of darkness. Darkness, and… emptiness. I could feel the aura of sorrow and hatred that seeped in from every corner of this place.

Hearing came next. I could hear… footsteps from behind me. I turned my head around to see a man in a cloak walk forward, grinning over the dark book he had in his hands.

"Ah…" he said, closing said book and adjusting his top hat. "Just as the Dark Prognosticus foretold…"

"…who are you?" I asked, my voice hoarse from using it the first time.

"Who indeed?" the man asked, tapping his chin. "My name… is of no importance. Everyone knows me as Count Bleck."

"Bleck…" I repeated, standing on my feet. They were shaky under me, but I eventually found my balance.

"And I'm sure you're wondering who you are as well," Count Bleck continued.

"…no," I answered, looking down at my hand and focusing. Pure, unbridled darkness gathered around it. "I know who I am."

"Oh?" laughed Count Bleck. "Well, that saves us some time, doesn't it? But, young man… what do I have the pleasure of calling you?"

"…" I held out both hands, commanding the darkness to form together and create a mask in my hand. I placed the mask on my face and, now that the Count couldn't see it, sneered. The fool didn't know who I was… perfect. Memories came to me. Some mine, some not, but from them, a plan came to my mind. I turned my head back to Count Bleck.

"Well?" he asked. After a moment of thinking, I finally answered:

"Call me… Dimento."

* * *

_**End of Book 2**_


End file.
